Thoughts on Virgil van Dijk going into Transfer Day

I don't understand Liverpool FC fandoms obsession with Virgil van Dijk.

I'm not here to bury him I'm not here to praise him I'm not here to bury him I'm here to give my take on the situation and tell the facts how I see them.

First things first, van Dijk is a perfectly decent centre back, Liverpool don't need a perfectly decent centre back. We should be looking for someone a level higher up than that. Liverpool are in the Champions League for the second time in nine seasons. If Liverpool want to stay at this level and push on we need to be looking for a centre back with top quality experience at this level. There are plenty of very good players currently at teams who have fallen out of a Champions League spot or still in them who we are in a position to try and sign them.

This is the level of player I think we should be going for, instead Liverpool fans have developed an obsession for Virgil van Dijk whose experience of the Champions League is losing with Celtic and winning two SPL titles with no opposition for Celtic. I've heard talk of van Dijk taking the Premiership by storm over the last two years, which conveniently forgets he spent half of last season out injured.

I'm not saying don't buy him, if anything I'd put out a case for bringing him in January. In short he just isn't a priority we need to be going for a defender with go faster stripes who is going to drag the rest of the defence up by their bootstraps. I have seen nothing to convince me that Virgil van Dijk is that player, as such he isn't a deadline day priority.

Thoughts going into Hoffenheim Vs Liverpool

Its early in the football season and tonight Liverpool play the first leg in their qualifying tie against Hoffenheim. Essentially everything achieved in the league comes down to these two games against decent German opposition. The mood is worrying to cautious, having played one league game the worries from last season are still in place, mainly the defence and lack of a dynamic defensive midfielder.

A lot of my thinking going into tonight's game is based on the 3-3 draw with Watford at the weekend and they are as follows;

Mingolet cannot start, Klopp himself said there is a three way shoot out for the keepers jersey this season and based on two of the goals conceded Mingolet has lost his place and should join the back of the queue.

Moreno looked decent, he's not a defender and I believe he needs to be played further up field but he's looking good and was our best attacker at the weekend.

I'm not going to turn on the midfield three of Can, Wijnaldum and Henderson after one game but collectively they got off to a slow start and need to have more impact tonight.

I'm looking forward to seeing Mane and Salah running riot with hopefully Firmino joining in more than at the weekend.

With regards to the squad I'm disappointed we haven't brought in a central defender. We need more quality in that area of the pitch, also I'm not convinced Virgil van Dijk  is the player we need. We should be going for proven Champions League quality and all van Dijk has done at that level is get tonked by various clubs with Celtic.

Overall thoughts for tonight's match are I want us tight, I want us to work as a unit, get a goal or two and kill the second leg at home.