Reviews
96 - TOTS
Insane defender. Used him next to moments maldini in weekend league and the partnership was insane. Wins every tackle he goes into, intercepts anything close to him, can be beat by through balls though so some manual run tracking is helpful. Feels good enough on the ball for a CB and usually passes the ball well enough. Scored a few headers off corners as well so that was a bonus
- Physicality
- Defensive positioning
- Tackling
- Recovers from mistakes well
- Headers
- Interceptions
- quite fast in play
- slow on the break (long through balls)
- passing kinda sus sometimes
So I got Van Dijk in a guaranteed EPL TOTS pack from TOTS swaps and I had mixed feeling about that since I already had untradable TOTS Laporte, TOTS Dias and TOTS Ndicka but decided to give him a go since he fited in my squad perfectly. But unfortunately all of my other CBs play way better for me.
I used Van Dijk in the weekend league together with TOTS TAA at RB and they were utterly dissapointing. Once I switched to Ndicka and Da Costa my defence instantly became way more reliable, since Ndicka and Laporte are both way faster and more agile on the ball. The thing with Van Dijk is that he often falls over when trying to clear all those high through balls in counter attacks, probably due to his low balance and agility, something that never happens to me on Laporte and Ndicka.
So I would definitely not recommend buying Van Dijk for your side, since there are a lot of better options already in the Premier League (Laporte, Dias etc.). For me he went into the PIM Cantona SBC, since I have no use for him with so many untradable defenders.
Strong and tall
Dangerous from corners
Good at tackling
Clunky with low balance
Slow due to low acceleration - has problems catching up to all those pacey strikers
Unreliable
I got Van Dijk in the TOTS PL swaps pack and was buzzing at first, I kept hold of his gold at the start of the season for a long time and was pretty loathe to give up on it and it seemed like a good pick.
But once you put him in game he feels like you're playing with lag - I went from rarely getting done in behind with TOTS Laporte to Virg starting slowly and then seeming to slow down as he chased strikers.
It is mental that Laporte is about 200k cheaper than him on Xbox. If you want a PL centre-back, get him, steer clear of Van Dijk.
Strong
Tall
Decent on the ball
Good from corners
Slower than Crossrail