Van Dijk Hammered by L'Equipe After Liverpool's PSG Collapse

Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final trip to Paris ended in complete humiliation on Tuesday evening, with PSG dismantling the Reds 2-0 courtesy of strikes from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

The Ligue 1 powerhouses were utterly dominant throughout, leaving Arne Slot's men looking thoroughly second best on a night when the visitors rarely threatened. That comprehensive nature of the defeat only made the subsequent scrutiny of Liverpool's captain all the more pointed.

French critics at L'Equipe were particularly unforgiving with Virgil van Dijk, handing him a damning 3/10 alongside teammates Ryan Gravenberch and Milos Kerkez. Goalkeeper Georgio Mamardashvili was the sole Liverpool player to escape with a 6/10, while the remainder of the squad languished between 4/10 and 5/10—a damning collective assessment.

The scrutiny extended beyond continental journalists. Former England and Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson weighed in on BBC Radio 5 Live, taking particular issue with van Dijk's treatment of teammate Joe Gomez. "Virgil van Dijk once again criticizing his teammates. There is no need for Van Dijk to criticize Joe Gomez when he didn't overlap him," Robinson stated.

Yet not everyone was ready to hang the captain out to dry. Jamie Carragher launched a spirited defence of the 34-year-old, instead directing his fire at both the tactical setup and van Dijk's centre-back partner Ibrahima Konate.

Speaking to CBS Sports, Carragher suggested Slot's deployment of a back five—the first time Liverpool had used such a formation in the Champions League or Premier League since December 2017—had fundamentally compromised van Dijk's effectiveness. "He went about it with the back five all wrong and they were actually more open with a back five than they would be with a back four," the former defender explained.

The tactical scheme forced van Dijk into unfamiliar territory, requiring him to cover vast swathes of pitch rather than enjoy the protection typically afforded to a centre-back in a three-man line. At his age, Carragher noted, the middle of a back three should theoretically be his comfort zone—instead, the absence of defensive structure left him perpetually scrambling.

"Defenders were jumping into midfield, there was no one to mark and Virgil van Dijk at 34 years of age was having to run in there and he was having to run across. He couldn't do it," Carragher observed.

Whilst acknowledging van Dijk's struggles on the night, Carragher maintained the captain had been unfairly criticised for his season overall. Konate, he suggested, had been the genuine weak link in Liverpool's rearguard, accumulating errors week after week.

"I have never seen him so uncomfortable in a Liverpool shirt in my life," Carragher concluded of van Dijk's display in that back three—a damning verdict that nonetheless pointed the finger squarely at the tactical blueprint rather than the man himself.