former Red Steve Nicol slam Van Dijk in UCL clash vs Atletico

"I was laughing when the second goal went in because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was so easy," former Red Steve Nicol said of Liverpool's victory against Atletico, as quoted by Metro.

"I was like 'where’s the opposition here? 2-0 this is going to be a cake walk'.

"But then the rest of the game, you talk about frustrating, I’ve never seen Liverpool defend as badly since Virgil van Dijk arrived at Anfield and particularly him as well, that’s easily his worst game defensively in a Liverpool jersey.

"From a personal point of view, he’s just not back to where he is physically and mentally, he’s not.

"The rest of his team-mates are struggling defensively as well.

"Liverpool defensively are a bit of a shambles and even in this game when Atletico went down to 10 men, they still looked as though they were going to score against Liverpool’s 11 men."

Liverpool's backline looked shaky throughout the game, allowing too many chances to Atletico.

The Reds had to thank Alisson Becker for bailing us out on so many occasions and keeping us in the game in the first half.

Van Dijk put in a particularly under-par performance as he failed to control Antoine Griezmann's movement in the box in both goals the Frenchman scored.