Virgil van Dijk – better than Sakho?

[Hightown hope]

Well, he has now apparently handed on a transfer request, and the painful saga has moved forward another step. If we do end up getting him it will be for a fee north of £60m, it would appear. Is he that good? Is he that much better than Sakho, who still doesn’t appear to have a future at Anfield despite being player of the season at Selhurst Park last year in his 8 or 10 game Palace career. There doesn’t seem to be a queue of clubs after him, but I liked him as a player. He was certainly a crowd favourite as well.

If he doesn’t go this transfer window, what do we do with him?

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[Editor]

That’s a big shout. If that is even in doubt, surely the rumored VVD fee is better spent on another area of the field, as you say. I must admit I think the VVD fee is way over the top but it’s the going rate for a decent centre back these days. I do think you’ll get VVD either way. The Chelsea link seems to have quietened down

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[Hightown hope]

You say it’s the going rate for a top centre back…but it’s not though, is it? The fee mooted is a world record fee. I don’t know what is the current world record fee for a defender, is it still Rio? We need a centre back more than any other position, that is a fact, at least until Phil goes…going in to the season with Dejan Lovren as a certain starter is worrying, but my point is we have one at the club who is not even likely to be getting splinters in his backside over the next few weeks. It does appear as though Sakho and Klopp’s relationship has irrevocably broken down, and if he doesn’t trust Sakho, I guess we, as Liverpool fans, have to trust him.

If there are no takers for Sakho, we are then stuck with him till January paying him £100k a week. £1.5m for an asset we are not using!!

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[Editor]

The Rio fee has been topped a few times now.

– Luiz to PSG (£50mil)
– Stones to City (£50mil)
– Walker to City (£50mil)

You make a fair point that it would indeed be a world record fee for someone who few would say justifies being the world’s most expensive defender BUT looking at the trends from the above players (who I’d argue are around the same level if not a lower level than VVD) then the “going rate” argument makes more sense don’t you think?

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[Hightown hope]

Yeah, as you can see I didn’t try too hard to think of more expensive defenders than Rio!! I have to admit I don’t know enough about VVD to know whether he is worth that money. I suppose I’ve seen a bit of him over the last couple of years, and he’s looked pretty good, but it’s difficult to make a judgement until he’s actually playing for you…and by that time, it’s too late!!

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[mwake]

Hi there again Hightown, by the way nice website Mr Editor! I haven’t seen VVD play, to be honest, but I know Sakho lifted Palace from nearly getting relegated to being safe. People said that Sakho played in a defensive unit at Palace but they were playing the same defensive tactics before he came in. Their tactics only started working once Sakho came in. It’s probably too late for Sakho to come in for Hoffenheim game but surely he could be eased in? Deadline day will be interesting. Liverpool want 30 million for him but I suspect we will let him go for less on deadline day. Could he be used as a part exchange swap for VVD on deadline day, probably not but you never know?

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[Editor]

Welcome to the site mwake. With some more traffic to the site we should be able to make a decent forum for all fans. We welcome any feedback and will do our best to make the user experience as simple and effective as possible.

Liverpool could soon have an awful lot of money to spend (if Coutinho does go) but they’ll be taken to the cleaners by any buying club as they’ll know Liverpool have loads of money and very little time to replace him. They could do with getting the likes of VVD over the line before they come into more money

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[Zk2007]

I don’t think Southampton would be interested in sakho as a 30m makeweight I’m sure they would prefer to have the cash and buy a young cheaper alternative and develop him to sell on later for a huge profit. I also think coutinho is going we need to make sure we get one or two players included in any deal as these days it’s hard to buy decent players even if you have cash in the bank as there are not enough quality players to go around for the so called “big clubs” so teams are refusing to sell at any price .

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[Hightown hope]

Zk – Sakho is only 27, so he probably has another 5 years at the top left. But my point still stands, if neither Palace or Southampton want him, what do we do with him? A depreciating asset sat in the reserves is no good for club or player

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[nutts]

I think VVD is a better all round defender than Sakho and more importantly would likely be consistent – you would know what you would get every game. Plus, VVD is, I believe, quicker and based on our pressing game, it’s a huge attribute to have.

All things being equal, VVD over Sakho every day 🙂

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[Zk2007]

Sakho will be dumped for 20 million on dead line day

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[y_nwa]

I can’t see any teams pushing for Sakho
Palace have taken fosu-mensah who can also play in defense
I hope Inter flies in.

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[Scouser in exile]

If, and I believe it’s still a big if, we get VVD I’ll be happy as personally I think he’s a better player than Sakho who always looks to me like an accident waiting to happen, I think VVD is a better footballer and more suited to the way we’re playing under Klopp than Sakho would ever be, if we do sell Sakho at a loss (I hope we don’t) it won’t be the first time but I think he’ll definitely be gone by the time the window closes. YNWA RIP the 96

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[Hightown hope]

I don’t think anyone would argue VVD is a better bet than Sakho, but I do feel Sakho is being underrated on here. Nutts- Sakho was actually pretty consistent when he did play. He may have looked like an accident waiting to happen but that accident very rarely actually happened!

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[Anonymous]

Hey Mwake, good to see another TT head join. Was it yourself of someone else who suggested before that we hold onto Sakho until January?. . when the table is starting to settle and palace or the likes need to make sure they keep getting their PL TV cheques, maybe his talents could be better appreciated then. TBH Palace got away with murder by benefiting massively for a tiny fee and they couldn’t be bothered after that. Well, Sakho is well credited with being the potential difference between the drop and a safety, so I’d probably keep him on board until then but the thing is, what do you do with him before then? Would any team worth loaning him to even be interested in a 6 month loan? I doubt it but maybe there is another angle there somewhere that doesn’t involve him playing for us.

I like Sakho and had really high hopes for him at Liverpool but I can’t see Klopp bringing him back into the fold. We’ve been running the risk of not only not getting Van Dijk but actually heading into the season with only Matip, Lovren, Klavan and Gomez. Sakho is definitely better than 2 of those defenders are arguably better than Lovren. So, even with the situation we’re facing there hasn’t been a single word or hint that Sakho has a way back here at Anfield. I didn’t think he ever had one but when he celebrated that goal against us that time, I think that was event horizon.

My overall thought here is that if we were to find some clever way of putting Sakho’s talents on display with the ability to sell him in January, we might be able to get up to £40m for him, never mind the £30m that we clearly can’t get for him right now.

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[Hightown hope]

You know what, Mak, that’s a very good point. By playing Sakho it might very well actually increase his value. Having said that, if we played him and he did really well, we’d want to keep him anyway!! But like you, there is no way back for him, it appears, which is a shame. If VVD joins, having Sakho as a first reserve and Lovren/ Klavan/ Gomez as back ups, that pretty much resolves our defensive problems…in theory at least!

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[mwake]

Yeah glad to see you here Mr Mak 🙂 I used to be on the fence with Sakho but seeing as Klopp never wants to pick him again we might as well let him go. It’s sad, so sad actually, one minute he’s celebrating us getting past Dortmund and then it all unravels, I don’t think the drug ban helped his mental state of mind. Nevertheless we have to move on and I think it’s best he goes so we can actually get some use out of the selling fee. If I had any hope Klopp would use Sakho then I would definitely say keep, but Klopp will not forgive this guy even in heaven. I believe I heard on Anfield Index podcast that there is NO defender in the whole of Europe who has better heading statistics than VVD. Another reason to snap him up.

https://www.acast.com/theanfieldindex/anotherpodcastwithdavehendrick-episode18-discussingwatfordaway

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[Hightown hope]

Mwake – Saturday just emphasises our need for a commanding centre back, but Conte needs one at Chelsea as well!

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[whoisbeni]

It’s our system that is more at fault than the defenders themselves – even with VVD it would still look like the Benny hill chase scene when we defend a corner.

Sakho matip and Lovren are decent but that system is murder.

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[Editor]

@whoisbeni Welcome to the site Beni. Look forward to reading your posts

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[Author]

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