Virgil van Dijk's vital late Liverpool goal threat Everton should have seen coming

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Virgil van Dijk popped up in the 100th minute of the Merseyside derby to win it, but crucial late goals are nothing new to himIf both the manner and timing of Liverpool's Merseyside derby winner were a little surprising, the scorer of it was not.With Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz all taken off, the Reds were finishing the first meeting with Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium with a front three of Mohamed Salah, Rio Ngumoha and Jeremie Frimpong.Quick? Possessing 261 Liverpool goals between them, only 257 of which were Salah's?

Not at all.If the Reds were to find a way past Everton's Land of the Giants at the back then they were unlikely to do so via an aerial contribution from one of their forwards, and so when they won that late, late corner and the hosts began to fear what would come next, it was perhaps inevitable that Virgil van Dijk would have his say.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageAs Arne Slot has often been at pains to point out, the Reds have had their problems with set-pieces this season - both in their own penalty area and the opposition's.A poor setup has been partly to blame for that of course, and tightening up in that area is a must if Liverpool are to succeed in the modern Premier League, but there is a law of averages element to it too.

Sometimes one of your big fellas is going to get there before one of the big fellas on the opposition. And when the game is on the line, there are few big fellas better at doing that than Van Dijk.Sunday saw the Dutchman's 34th Liverpool goal, with almost a third of them, 11, coming from 76 minutes onwards and five of those changing the result.The 100th minute header at Hill Dickinson Stadium will probably always be celebrated as Van Dijk's latest, perhaps greatest goal given the circumstances, but when you add extra-time into the equation then there is of course his 118th minute Wembley goal to beat Chelsea's 'billion pound bottlejobs' - c/o Gary Neville - in the 2024 Carabao Cup final, a truly special moment given the patched up side the Reds had out and the fact that it secured a trophy for Jurgen Klopp in his final season.Since those Wembley heroics Van Dijk took Liverpool to the cusp of the Premier League title with an 89th minute header at the Kop end to beat West Ham last season, then early in this campaign there was another Kop header, this time against Atletico Madrid, to win 3-2 on the opening night of the league phase of the Champions League.And, of course, Sunday echoed Van Dijk's famous debut winning goal against Everton in the FA Cup third round back in January 2018, a header which came at the comparatively early time of 84 minutes as Jordan Pickford was left grasping for thin air just as he would be eight years later.And it isn't just late on that the Reds skipper makes matchwinning contributions.Van Dijk scored the only goal of the vital, backs-against-the-wall win at Sunderland this season just after the hour mark, while back in November 2019 just as Klopp's side were beginning to streak away towards the title there were a pair of goals six minutes apart in a 2-1 win over Brighton.Two months after that he scored the opening goal against Manchester United on an afternoon better remembered for Mohamed Salah making it 2-0 in stoppage time, effectively sealing the title in the eyes of many, while in the last two seasons Van Dijk put Liverpool 2-1 up at vital stages of Champions League games at AC Milan and Frankfurt.With five games to go this season Van Dijk has matched his best ever Liverpool campaign in front of goal with six, a total only bettered by the remarkable 10 he got for Celtic in 2014/15 as he shot to attention of everyone in British football.At club level his 63 strikes in 630 appearances is a very clean ratio of one every 10 games, while you can throw in 12 more across his 90 caps for the Netherlands to bring that rate down again.He's a very handy attacking weapon to have then, and indeed a vital one to a Liverpool side who haven't quite clicked in front of goal this season.Only Hugo Ekitike (17), Salah (12), Dominik Szoboszlai (12) and Gakpo (8) have scored more goals than Van Dijk this season, a stat doesn't exactly reflect well on Isak and Wirtz and also underlines just what the Reds will be missing when the Dutchman eventually ends his Anfield career.Moments like Sunday make that day all the more unthinkable for many, with crucial interventions in front of goal just another string to the bow of one of Liverpool's greatest ever.