Virgil van Dijk is not good enough for Liverpool any more

At times Virgil van Dijk has been “too good for the highest level,” as Jamie Carragher eulogised last year.

Sometimes, however, you have to leave football before it leaves you. As Casemiro has enjoyed a career renaissance, Van Dijk’s performance trajectory has hurtled past the Brazilian in the opposite direction.

After Erling Haaland left Van Dijk dazed and confused in Liverpool’s chastening defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, the realisation that the Dutchman is not even good enough for elite football any more perhaps started to hit home.

“It’s mentally very tough at the moment, I must say,” Van Dijk said after the match.

“I am trying to think how we can turn it around but we have been going through this for almost 75 per cent of the season, where we do well but we can’t build on certain things and we fall back into games, where we get beat on intensity or beat on how much you really want to go for it.

“It is a difficult one to take and everyone has to look at themselves. I am speaking for myself, but it is mentally tough at the moment to take this.”

Van Dijk has never looked more despondent than he did after a third defeat to Pep Guardiola’s side this season.

The team display was as bad as anything from Arne Slot’s tenure, the personal showing as bad as anything in the last decade.

Rivals are always quick to jump on the slightest mistakes from their foes’ best players.

Van Dijk has been nowhere near as bad as some of the social media memes suggest he has this season.

It is just, as Liverpool’s season has fallen apart around him, he becomes less the impenetrable colossus he once was by the week.

Throughout his career, Van Dijk has reserved his defensive masterclasses for the strongest opponents, Haaland being a prime example.

While City have achieved some startling results against Liverpool during Haaland’s time in England, the Norwegian has personally struggled to make much of an impact against the Reds, his penalty at Anfield earlier this season his first goal at the famous old ground.

On Saturday, Haaland was a man reborn, aided by his old adversary no longer being able to keep up.

The challenge on Nico O’Reilly for City’s opener was clumsy in the extreme. The 34-year-old has now conceded four penalties this season. That’s as many as he did in his first eight years with Liverpool.

Van Dijk then played Antoine Semenyo onside for the hosts’ third, while Haaland’s hat-trick came about after one shimmy was enough to lose his marker with ease.

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It was Van Dijk’s body language that gave the starkest indication the decline is potentially permanent.

As Haaland reeled off to celebrate a 28th career treble, Van Dijk charged upfield to berate Dominik Szoboszlai, who did not look best pleased to be receiving such vitriol, before looking for others to blame.

With time to reflect after the game, Van Dijk may look a little closer to home. With one Liverpool legend departing for pastures new in the summer, another may start to start perhaps thinking of doing the same.