Ex Liverpool player John Aldridge thinks that Virgil Van Dijk has a nice arrogance, for some reason he thinks this is good for Liverpool.
John Aldridge speaking to the Liverpool Echo has praised Virgil Van Dijk for his performance at St Mary's and suggested that the players "Nice Arrogance" is a good trait.
"Liverpool faced a hostile atmosphere at Southampton but ended up strolling to victory and I was particularly impressed by Virgil van Dijk, the man the home fans were targeting most, as he just batted off their abuse with a smile on his face."
"Van Dijk showed a nice arrogance in many ways."
"Getting the early goal helped but you could see Virgil grinning when he was getting the boos from the Southampton fans — that's the way to treat it."
"I used to get a bit of stick with opposition fans after I came back from Spain and was at Tranmere but obviously the crowds weren't as big in the Premier League."
"I'd just laugh about it, score a goal and put two fingers up to them — which I got done for a couple of times — it's just nice to answer people back and prove that you've got bottle."
John Aldridge puts himself up as a man of the people on Merseyside and perhaps he should consider just why Southampton fans were booing Van Dijk !
It wasn't because he had left Saints for Liverpool, it was for the way that he behaved in engineering the move from St Mary's, the way he met with Liverpool in secret, refused to play for the club and then put is a series of half hearted performances that were an insult to the title Professional Footballer.
Unlike Aldridge who was sticking up two fingers at opposition fans who supported a club he never played for and where just giving him the usual banter aimed at the oppositions star players, Saints fans were letting Van Dijk what they thought of him for his appalling behaviour when he showed no respect not only for them, but his former employers who did nothing wrong other than asking him to honour a lucrative contract that he has signed only a few months earlier and then showed his gratitude by furtively talking to Liverpool whilst his employers paid him to sit around injured.
If Aldridge considers that smirking at the Southampton supporters is a "Nice Arrogance" then he is sorely out of touch with what happened with Van Dijk at Southampton, if he considers taking around £2 million in wages from his employers without trying, a good trait, then perhaps he has lost touch with his Merseyside roots.
Liverpool having had similar issues with both Luis Suarez and Phillipe Coutinho you would think would know the difference between a Nice Arrogance and a blatant smirk by now