The England international has attracted a fair share of criticism ever since his mega transfer from Leicester to Manchester United, the tall figure of a defender is either not good enough or not equal to the fee paid for him compared to Van Dirk who has shown value for money.
The season has not been that good and he has seen the Red Devils lose out in all European competitions and did not qualify even for the UEFA Conference league.
Head Coach Ten Hag has his job hanging in the air especially seeing the Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino depart Stamford Bridge by mutual consent.
He told talkSPORT: “First and foremost, it’s a huge honour and a massive privilege to play for a club with so much history. It’s a huge club and I love playing for it. It means so much to me and there’s so many ups and downs, the scrutiny is there, everybody knows that. The pressure is there because we’re the most spoken-about club in the world – for sure in this country. That’s just the way it is and you have to get used to it. You’ve got to be able to deal with it. As an individual, you can’t look too much into it, you just have to look after yourself during the week and prepare as well as you can. Then you approach the matchday with confidence. The preparation gives you the confidence to deal with the pressure of playing for such a huge, iconic club.”
United will face their City rivals to see whether there will be some reckoning for the sins they have caused to their fans this season.