Liverpool did not replace Dejan Lovren when he left the club in the summer and they have now been handed a major blow after Van Dijk suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Everton on Saturday.
The 30-year-old centre-back did not miss a league game for the Reds after joining in January 2018 and while the club have not set a timeframe for his return, the Dutchman is expected to miss the rest of the season.
The Reds are now down to two senior centre-backs in the squad in Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, and Moreno thinks that Van Dijk’s loss is likely to be the difference in the title race this season.
He feels Manchester City are now the favourites to win the league and insisted that Liverpool have lost the man who often bailed out the other defenders in the Reds defence over the last two years.
Moreno is of the view that the more Matip and Gomez play over the next months, the more errors the Liverpool defence will commit.
The former striker said on ESPN FC: “Virgil van Dijk is worth 18 points and more.
“When we had the discussion in the past couple of seasons over the importance of Van Dijk, was he a Ballon d’Or candidate, should he have won or not.
“The conversation was without Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool don’t win and now they are without Virgil van Dijk and so, therefore, Liverpool are no longer favourites, Manchester City are the team to beat.
“They have had defensive issues with Van Dijk on the field and now without him on the field, now they’ve lost that reference point, that angular piece, that guy who you say is the leader of our defence and he is going to bail us out.
“But now that guy is not there and now Joe Gomez has to play, Matip has to play, and when they play consistently, they are also going to make more mistakes.”
Van Dijk will soon undergo surgery and there are doubts whether he will be fit enough to be part of Netherlands’ European Championship squad next summer.
