van Dijk deserves the credit he's getting for his superb decision making throughout pretty much every game, nearly all the time, and I'm happy to see him get recognition for that 2vs1 situation against Spurs, but I have a bit of a problem with how the whole analysis is ridiculously based on the outcome. As I see it, VvD did what he had to do, but in the end Sissoko still had plenty of space for a finish and even in his worst foot, could and definitely should have scored from that position; and if he did, would we be hearing anything at all about that passage of play, or how this somehow proves VvD is the best defender in the world? Nah, I very much doubt it, even though it was a perfectly plausible and acceptable outcome - a lot of the time you can only do your best and hope for the best, and this time it worked. Had Sissoko scored, and we lost that game, it wouldn't shock me to see some even turning on the player; change the outcome, and people shift their focus of analysis, the talk could suddenly become that he was out of position, that the line should've been higher, or whatever suited the narrative best. But well, Sissoko didn't score, so the narratives can be created around it; not really a problem, but there's surely a bunch of piss poor "analysis" around the press as usual.
Logged