{"id":43968,"date":"2025-12-04T00:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=43968"},"modified":"2025-12-04T00:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:38:10","slug":"c741n0ek1m8oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/04\/c741n0ek1m8oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland: Virgil van Dijk struggles for Reds again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As with Salah, a player of Van Dijk&#8217;s pedigree must not be written off after winning two Premier Leagues, the Champions League, the FA Cup and two EFL Cups in a stellar Liverpool career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has, though, looked a shadow of his usual imperious self this season, with the worst recoveries per game during his Liverpool career, while tackles and interceptions are also down on last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And, while leadership should not be Van Dijk&#8217;s preserve alone in a Liverpool team packed with experience, it was missing here. No-one was inspiring a team that once again looked lost to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Van Dijk&#8217;s poor display, which ended with him being used as the desperate measure of acting as an emergency striker, was symptomatic of a horribly mediocre Liverpool performance &#8211; which made Sunday&#8217;s win at West Ham seem like the exception rather than the rule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Slot stayed with the side that ended a run of nine losses in 12 games at London Stadium, Salah once more watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Egyptian emerged at the start of the second half as the Kop looked to him for inspiration. It never came, with \u00a3125m Alexander Isak also anonymous after getting off the mark with his first league goal for Liverpool on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Slot would have been under even more pressure had Florian Wirtz&#8217;s 81st-minute shot not deflected in off Nordi Mukiele to set up what Liverpool hoped would be a grandstand finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Late drama came &#8211; but at the other end. Liverpool were only spared embarrassment in stoppage time when Federico Chiesa&#8217;s outstanding recovery run allowed him to turn Sunderland substitute Wilson Isidor&#8217;s shot off the line after he had rounded keeper Alisson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Liverpool #Sunderland #Virgil #van #Dijk #struggles #Reds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As with Salah, a player of Van Dijk&#8217;s pedigree must not be written off after winning two Premier Leagues, the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43970,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968\/revisions\/43970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}