The Times - UK (2020-10-20)

62 2GM Tuesday October 20 2020 | the times

SportFootball

will need that fortitude, watching others going

out to train, heading off to do boxes and pattern

of play, laughter following them, knowing it

leads to match day. They will miss him, his gifts

on the field, his personality off it. Van Dijk is a

substantial loss to the champions, a statement of

the obvious given that he finished only seven

points behind the winner Lionel Messi in the

most recent Ballon d’Or. He reads the game so

well, and so much in advance, so able to

intercept, dispossess, distribute. Van Dijk brings

leadership too, and a commanding, calming

presence. He is a Rolls-Royce on the field, and a

role model off it.

He has always been guided by the advice of

his mother, Hellen: “Be respectful, work hard,

stay positive and always follow your dreams.”

Van Dijk is certainly staying positive now,

focusing on resuming following his dreams. But

this incident, this incapacitation, would have

been avoided had Pickford shown more duty of

care. Think before you leap.

Pick one Euros host

Uefa, at some point, will surely have to consider

staging next summer’s European Championship

in one nation rather than across 12. The

tournament is still eight months away, and the

hope is that a vaccine will be found and in use

by then, but contingency plans are worth

discussing given how travel will need to be

limited if Covid-19 remains a threat. Alternative

venues take time to book. Germany looks the

best option in terms of stadiums, infrastructure

and its superior handling of the pandemic, but it

is already organising Euro 2024. England could

easily host, assuming any lockdowns have

ended. It would be a tonic the tourism industry

needs, even if travelling fans were limited.

falling lame, given the shortness of pre-season,

and the intensity and frequency of games,

particularly with international triple-headers

squeezed in. Sometimes the body just yields.

Sometimes it gives way when challenged hard.

Vulnerability is increased by complications in

the age of Covid, the restrictions placed on

masseurs, some players having to do their own

strappings etc.

Every player incapacitated is a source of deep

regret, of a feeling of the great Premier League

show lessened, of personal misfortune too. The

league loses some of its star quality with Van

Dijk’s absence, just as it does when Kevin De

Bruyne is not in the Manchester City side,

and is it any surprise with only “eight

days off” this summer, as a concerned

Pep Guardiola rightly pointed out?

Players are at considerable risk anyway

without rash tackles going in.

The City centre back Aymeric Laporte,

no stranger to injury’s cruel company,

was one of the first to send a get-

well message to Van Dijk. The

Dutchman is strong mentally, so

much so that he admitted a

year ago that he did not use a

psychologist, although

Liverpool did have an expert

working remotely with players

on their mindsets during

lockdown.

Van Dijk has a powerful support

network around him, family,

friends and club, and will return

fully restored but his injury and

absence is a painful reminder that

footballers are flesh and blood,

sinew and bone, and already

vulnerable in a game without

unnecessary collisions being thrown

into a volatile mix.

He is renowned as such an imperious

presence in Liverpool’s defence, and so

garlanded with individual and collective

honours, that people can forget the mental

toughness he has needed to fight the long

fight to reach the top.

This is a man who developed his

competitive edge in Cruyff Court combat

growing up in Breda, being questioned by

coaches as a teenager, working in the

kitchen of a local restaurant at 17, his

development slowed by appendicitis at 19,

before his pathway accelerated at

Groningen, Celtic and Southampton,

where he had to recover from a serious ankle

injury, and then Liverpool. The 29-year-old

Reckless Pickford

and referee failed to

show duty of care

Henry Winter

Chief Football Writer

E

ven in such a high-stakes industry,

even in the most intense moments

during matches, players still have a

duty of care to one another, even the

fiercest of rivals. There is a line

between going in hard and going in dangerously,

and Jordan Pickford crossed that line when

crashing into Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside

derby on Saturday.

Pickford’s challenge was reckless, if not

malicious, and it makes a mockery of VAR and

the officiating of Michael Oliver, actually one of

the better referees, that no action was taken at

the time or retrospectively, as the FA confirmed

yesterday. Pickford plays at Southampton on

Sunday while Van Dijk begins months of rehab

on his damaged anterior cruciate ligament.

Referees have a duty of care to players, and

Oliver and the VAR David Coote failed to show

that. The FA is supposed to be the guardian of

the game, a responsibility which includes

protecting players, so the governing body has let

down Van Dijk, Liverpool and the game itself

here. It has also done the Everton and England

goalkeeper no favours, as he needs to learn from

this, cutting such mindless lunges from his

game. He will injure himself, too, one day. Amid

all the talk of England looking for the new Paul

Gascoigne, they should show Pickford footage

of Gazza clattering into Gary Charles of

Nottingham Forest in the 1991 FA Cup final.

This is not to pick solely on Pickford, a decent

goalkeeper, who still has elements of his game

to improve, particularly decision-making. Some

of the abuse Pickford has been receiving on

social media is, clearly, disgraceful. He did not

intend to hurt Van Dijk.

This is a plea for more thought in the

challenge, however difficult it may be in the grip

of match-day adrenaline and a will to win.

Everton themselves have suffered injuries on

derby day. Early on in his Liverpool

career, Steven Gerrard went into one

derby pumped up by a desire to

“f***ing belt a Bluenose”, eventually

coming off the bench and going in

studs-up on Kevin Campbell and

getting sent off. “What are you

doing, you knobhead?” was the

first text Gerrard received

afterwards. From his father.

Driving out of Melwood

the next day Gerrard

stopped to sign some

autographs and one

Liverpool

supporter

congratulated

him on his red

card and said,

“Well done, at least you cared.” It’s

possible to care without putting an

opponent in harm’s way, without

risking injury to yourself, without

leaving your team depleted, without

getting a three-game ban. As

mischievous happenchance would

have it, Gerrard was in a local bar

shortly afterwards and bumped into

Campbell, who showed him the stud

marks on his thigh. Fortunately

Campbell was fine.

Injuries are the collateral risk of their

high-speed profession, and this season is

particularly going to be filled with players

Pickford did not intend to hurt Van Dijk but

his challenge was reckless in the extreme

Give VAR a minute

One of the many frustrations with VAR is the

time it takes, disrupting the game’s flow, so

why doesn’t PGMOL put a time limit on

decisions? If Stockley Park officials cannot

establish whether a clear and obvious error

has been made within a minute’s analysis, then

play on. Something radical or just sensible is

required to restore VAR’s credibility.

Technology is here to stay, so let’s shape it to

the game, not let it dictate the game. The

countdown, at least, would add to the drama.