Liverpool had no choice but to cough up an astronomical transfer fee in order to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton earlier this month.Although the Dutch centre-back had made it crystal clear that he wanted to move to Anfield, the Saints were well within their rights to hold out for the best possible price. After all, Van Dijk had signed a six-year contract with the south-coast club in May 2016.However, Van Dijk’s performance levels deteriorated and Southampton eventually agreed to cash in on the 26-year-old centre-back, receiving a cool £75 million on a player they spent £13 million on just two-and-a-half years earlier.The Netherlands international’s Liverpool debut was the stuff of dreams.He scored the winning goal in the closing stages of the match against his new employers’ local rivals, Everton, in front of the Kop, sending Liverpool through to the FA Cup fourth round.But little did he know back then that the FA Cup fourth round would bring him crashing back down to earth with a rather hefty bump.

Van Dijk fails to convince against West Brom

Liverpool were the firm favourites to beat West Brom at Anfield on Saturday night but slumped to a hugely frustrating 3-2 defeat.

Van Dijk produced an unconvincing performance and certainly could have done more to prevent both of Jay Rodriguez’s two first-half goals.

The Daily Mail handed Van Dijk a 5/10 rating and he can have no complaints with that.

This was not the type of performance that you’d expect from a £75 million centre-back.

What Man Utd fans are tweeting about Van Dijk

As you can probably imagine, Manchester United fans on social media have had a field day mocking Liverpool’s decision to spend such a huge fee on the Dutchman after Saturday night’s display.

And they’ve all been posting pretty much the same thing over on Twitter…

Ouch.

Will Van Dijk justify his huge price tag?

Still, it’s very early days in Van Dijk’s Liverpool career and those United fans could end up looking rather silly as the weeks and months roll by.

Then again, there are no guarantees that Van Dijk will be a success on Merseyside - despite his massive price tag.

How much money is Virgil van Dijk really worth? Have your say by leaving a comment below.