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Virgil van Dijk has been a skipper at club and international level for long enough that everybody knows by now that he's very good at it.
But he underlined his captaincy credentials once again as he criticized his country's performance despite beating Lithuania in a World Cup qualifier. The Netherlands led 2-0 after 33 minutes of the game in Kaunas, but by half-time, the home side was level. Former Manchester United star Memphis Depay scored the only goal of the second half to secure a 3-2 win, but Van Dijk was not happy with the performance.
The result came off the back of a 1-1 draw between the Netherlands and Poland last week, which no doubt would not have helped the Liverpool center-back's mood going into the game.
Van Dijk made it clear that he was not happy after the game in Lithuania, as he told his teammates they that need to take a long, hard look at themselves.
"We had a good 2-0 lead, but it ended too easily at 2-2, which made things difficult for ourselves. It was simply bad. The most important thing is the three points, but if we want to make progress, this obviously can't happen." Van Dijk said.
"We all need to look in the mirror and do much better. An evening like this shouldn't happen. Are we being tough enough on each other?
"Yes. Of course, we'll talk to each other and show each other videos.
"We'll definitely discuss it after the match. When we meet again next time, we need to make things right together.
"That's what we're aiming for."
While the Netherlands is supposedly one of the better international teams in world soccer, there is no doubt that Van Dijk is playing in a better team when he is turning out for his club.
Because of that, and the standards that are expected at Anfield, it is not often that you see Van Dijk come out and publicly criticize his teammates, but he obviously has it in him when he needs to be harsh.
When Liverpool faltered in the 2023-24 title race with a loss at Goodison Park, Van Dijk called his teammates out. “Do they really want to win the league?” he asked, before adding: “If you play like this overall in the game and [do] not win any challenges and give the referee an opportunity to give a free-kick away then we have no chance to win the title.
“Very disappointed in so many ways. Everyone has to look in the mirror and look at their own performance and think if they gave everything.”
The following season, Liverpool won the league — he will be hoping his harsh words to his Dutch teammates have a similar effect at international level.
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