Erm, if you read my posting history you’ll see that I certainly don’t go with the grain when it comes to VVD. He’s an average player in my book: not bad, but certainly not worth £75 million. What is it, a two-goal tally so far ( and like it or not, that lot paid over the odds that thinking he was going to chip in with a few goals each season)?
And defensively, he’s not that sound: despite the plaudits he still manages to misjudge the flight of the ball, misdirects his headers (not high and wide) and I’m still not convinced about this alleged blistering pace of his (during his Southampton day’s, he resorted to manhandling players to the ground on realising they’d pushed the ball past him, and annoyingly seemed to get away with it). Now that he’s surrounded by better players (as Souness kept reminding us all today), he’s not as vulnerable so fewer opportunities to look the cart-horse.
Add to that, Michael Keane has a better pedigree: a former Manure young player of the year, no less.