Shearer: I don’t understand Van Dijk’s criticism

English football legend Alan Shearer has criticized Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk for his “claims that modern-day footballers play too many games”.

Last week, Van Dijk insisted those playing in England had seen an unacceptable increase in workload, and called on players to speak out against congested schedules, as he hinted there was a threat to their health.

While the Netherlands captain was concerned about the increased workload required, he insisted he was not interested in giving up part of his wages in exchange for a lighter load.

Shearer slammed the claims as “nonsense”, insisting that footballers have never had a better situation. The Newcastle legend admitted that international fixture schedules had become too crowded, but he believed domestic fixture lists should not be changed.

Shearer told The Rest Is Football podcast when asked about Van Dijk’s comments: “Nonsense, nonsense, do players play too much football?”

He added: “I know you should never mention money, but you have bigger teams than ever before, more substitutes than ever before, you get paid more money than ever before, you have the best physical therapists, the best technology, the best of everything.” “.

He continued: “Didn’t he say that it is England that plays too much football? International football, I understand it. We all know why they do it, they do it for financial reasons. But here in England, I don’t really agree with that.”

Van Dijk played seven matches with Liverpool this season, and participated for the full 90 minutes in 6 of them. He was sent off after 28 minutes against Newcastle, resulting in a two-match ban, while he also missed the Europa League win over Union SG and the League Cup victory over Leicester City.

He has also played three times for the Netherlands this season, including the defeat to France last week. Van Dijk is likely to participate against Greece on Monday evening, before returning to club action in the Merseyside derby next Saturday.