Virgil van Dijk is being called 'Van Disney' on social media after a poor performance in Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Fulham. The Reds came from behind twice at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon and van Dijk had a torrid time against Alexsandar Mitrovic. The Serbia international scored a brace and was a thorn in the side of Liverpool's defence for the full 90 minutes. During the second half Mitrovic managed to body Jordan Henderson and have a run at van Dijk, who failed to dispossess his opponent. Van Dijk is regarded as one of the best one-on-one defenders in world football and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Mitrovic. Unfortunately for him, Mitrovic was back for more in the 72nd minute and van Dijk brought the Serbia international down in the penalty area and referee Andy Madley pointed to the spot. Liverpool players were furious with the decision but van Dijk knew he'd made a mistake. It is the first time van Dijk had been dribbled past by an opponent and conceded a penalty in a single Premier League game since joining joining Liverpool back in 2018. Mitrovic stepped up and put his spot kick past Alisson, giving Fulham the lead for a second time. Cameras cut to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on the sidelines and he looked less than pleased. Supporters online have reacted to van Dijk's performance and his new nickname of 'Van Disney' trended worldwide. You can check out some of the tweets below. Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scored equalisers after each of Mitrovic's strikes to ensure the points were shared. Liverpool looked off the pace compared to last weekend's Community Shield victory over Manchester City. A number of players were missing through injury and Thiago went off with a suspected hamstring injury. Klopp told BT Sport in his post-match interview: "The best thing about the game is the result, that we get a point from a really bad game from my side. The attitude was not right in the beginning, we wanted to fight back but we don't find it as easy any more. "The result is fine, we don't deserve more than that but the performance is massively improvable."
The Carabao and FA Cup winners struggled against Marco Silva's newly-promoted side and fell 1-0 behind to a header from Aleksandar Mitrovic in the first half.
£85 million record signing Darwin Nunez came off the bench to score on his Premier League debut before Mitrovic turned Virgil van Dijk inside out and won a penalty that he converted past Alisson Becker.
Mo Salah levelled matters in the 80th minute to prevent a losing start for Liverpool. But the Reds, fresh from winning the Community Shield last week, weren't at their usual level and it led to another excuse from Klopp.
"The best thing about the game is the result," Klopp told Des Kelly of BT Sport after the draw.
"A really bad game. How can that happen? The attitude was not right in the beginning. We tried to react after 15 minutes. The pitch was dry, stuff like this. Really difficult.” [BT]
Klopp does have quite the knack for blaming results on other factors. In the past he notably cited COVID-19, snow, wind, heat and not having fans in attendance as reasons for Liverpool not performing to their usual standards.
He also claimed BT Sport ordered a game to end early, put two mistakes from Alisson down to "cold feet" and was critical of having to play Real Madrid in their B team's stadium a couple of years back.
Half-time interviews have been introduced in the Premier League this season and Klopp's promise to be highly entertaining.
Next up for Liverpool is their first home game of the season against Crystal Palace, who travel to Anfield next Monday having lost 2-0 to Arsenal in the opening match of the campaign.
They then host Manchester United in a huge clash on Merseyside on 22 August.
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