Premier League stars have their say on Mourinho’s defensive problems

Manchester United troublesome continued as they suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Valencia in their final group stage fixture in the Champions League

Luckily for them, they had already progressed to the round of 16. But Jose Mourinho would be far from happy with the performance. Carlos Soler opened the scoring for the home side and Phil Jones’ disastrous own goal doubled the lead for the home side within 2 minutes of the second half.
Marcus Rashford did pull one back for the Red Devils but it was too little too late as they couldn’t find the equalizer. Manchester United’s defense has been their undoing very often this season.
United have the worst defensive record among the top 13 sides in the league, having conceded 26 games already in 16 games. Meanwhile, Liverpool have the best defensive record in the league with just 6 goals conceded. And no man has more responsible for that than Virgil van Dijk. Talking about which player could solve United’s defensive woes, Merson said,

‘If I was Man Utd, I’d want Virgil van Dijk,’ Merson told Sky Sports. ‘Defensively, they are not good enough, nowhere near it and he’s the best in the business for me. ‘It’s easy to say after, but Van Dijk probably wondered if he would be this good at a big club because he was at Southampton where if you win, you win, if you don’t then you don’t.
‘I don’t mean that in a bad way but there’s no pressure compared to Liverpool.’
Thompson further added, “It has to be Van Dijk because he’s the kind of player you can build a team around. ‘He can sure them up at the back and can organise those around him to make the team a lot more solid and then give them a better base to attack.’

Author’s take

Virgil van Dijk is one of the best defenders in Europe right now, if not the best. And his impact can already be seen as Liverpool boast of the best defensive record in the league.