Virgil van Dijk gave an absolute masterclass on how to defend one-on-one during a recent video with the F2 Freestylers on YouTube.
Liverpool defender van Dijk is one of the world's best and is famously hard to dribble past. If you want to argue that he backs away a lot so he can't be dribble past, feel free to.
Advert
What can't be denied is his composure when out on the pitch.
Van Dijk is rarely erratic and carries out his duties with composure.
He and teammate Andy Robertson put Jeremy Lynch through a number of drills with the help of academy prospect Mateusz Musialowski.
One drill sees Lynch have to face off with van Dijk in a one versus one duel and the Dutchman explained his entire thought process.
Advert
With Lynch stood in front of him and waiting to attack, van Dijk explains: "I try to look at your eyes.
"If someone is in front of you and they're very technical and doing all sorts of tricks and stuff, you might be thinking: 'what's going on here?'
"So, you can see in their body language and in my case, I like to look in some player's eyes."
Lynch then puts his theory to the test and van Dijk, true to his words, doesn't look down at the ball and looks his opponent straight in the eyes.
Advert
He continued: "You hold off a little bit because in my case, I have Fabinho running back, Robbo [Robertson] running back and if he goes there, I try to win it in a clean way."
Van Dijk missed a huge chunk of last season due to injury and it derailed Liverpool's hopes of retaining their Premier League title.
They ended up coming third, a significant drop by Jurgen Klopp's high standards.
Advert
The 30-year-old is back in the fold this campaign however and has featured in 20 of Liverpool's 22 Premier League games so far.
Van Dijk scored in their last game, a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace before the international break.
Liverpool are second in the league behind Manchester City and return to action in the FA Cup against Cardiff City on Sunday.
Topics: Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool, Premier League