I remember spending weeks here arguing with an idiot who thought Lindelof was a better player. This was before Maureen decided to blow his load on Lindelof while Liverpool were successfully tapping up Van Dijk. Damn good player.
Virgil van Dijk | Performances
- Thread starter Samid
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
For all the plaudits VVD has received it must be said that at the age of 27 he's not done much. The greats that he's being compared to had already left their mark on the PL and world football by 27.
VVD needs to be incredible over the next 5 seasons in order to catch up to them
VVD needs to be incredible over the next 5 seasons in order to catch up to them
Don't think Rio was as strong in the air as Van Djik who just eats everything up. On the ground though I'd have Rio any day. Don't think many forwards liked facing up to Rio.
Rio was pretty damn good in the air tbf. Although maybe didn’t get much chance to show it because Vidic was such a monster alongside him. On the ground Rio didn’t always get his way. Torres caused him a few problems, for example. But yeah, he was immense in 1 v 1s.
Or course, I’ve yet to see any forward get much joy against Van Dijk on the ground. Hopefully someone gets his number soon. Still relatively early days.
Maybe VVD relies a bit more on his physical qualities than Rio and is better in the air, whereas Rio looked more elegant on the ball and generally better on the ground as the post above says. Rio's reading of the game and positioning was fantastic. But VVD is quite good on the ball too and is intelligent as well.
I think VVD's positioning and anticipation is superb. It really stood out in the game against City. He was like a fecking magnet for the ball. Seemed to constantly be in the right place at crucial moments (unless that oaf, Lovren, was in his way anyway!)
Indeed. While I agree with the consensus that he needs to sustain this level for longer, it is also fair to say that we often see a time lag in people recognising the quality of players who have come from lower profile clubs and leagues. Van Dijk hit the ground running in the Premier League and won Southampton's Player of the Year in 15/16 (when they came 6th). He's improved further since then and was quite clearly the best defender in the league IMO by the time he joined Liverpool. And if we were to compare 12-month periods in the PL, his last calendar year has only been matched by Rio around 2006-2008. Another 12-18 months at this level and he's in the mixer for a post-1992 PL team.
Considering Van Dijk's best quality is his aerial ability and that was probably the weakest part of Rio's game. I think Van Dijk is more similar to Sol Campbell. Akanji of Dortmund is probably the defender the most similar to Rio right now.
I don’t think that’s true. There’s much much more than being good in the air to his game. I would say his strongest quality is defending one v one. Which we saw when he beasted the quickest player in the league, Traore.
I also think you’re underestimating how strong Rio was in the air.
Basically you’re making both of them sound very one dimensional when they’re actually about as complete a pair of central defenders as you’ll see.
Reading this comparison with Rio makes me think, we never had one world class CB, we had two in the same fecking team. Seems like a million years ago compared to what we got now.
But, Rio was just ok in the air while Van Dijk has had dominant aerial ability stats everywhere he has played. They are both complete defenders but stylistically very different.
Sure, he's the most expensive defender ever cause he's never had a great season.
Not trying to hammer you, but it was apparent he was a great CB.
Need to have a machine which can clone another pair of Virgil Van Dijks. One is needed if it's 4 in the back, 2 if three in the back.
The causation is wrong but you're correct that he hasn't.
I disagree.
I will just put it this way. For CB partnerships you want CBs whose skills compliment each other. With Van Dijk I actually think a Rio type CB would be the best compliment him.
Did you watch Rio play? I’m amazed that you could and not see the similarities wjth Van Dijk.
They are similar in terms of being great defenders but, I think they are as similar as John Terry is similar to Gerard Pique.
While nuanced, the difference with Van Dijk is he has traits of all of them - he has the passing ability / flowing gait and style of Rio Ferdinand, similar ability to position himself as Terry and his Arial ability is up there with Vidic / Terry / Hypia at their best.
For sure he needs to do it over a sustained period of time, but on 12 month form he is as good as anyone in the world. Liverpool wouldn't entertain the idea of swapping him for any other Centre half in world football, which says a lot.
Similarity goes beyond that, they are quite comfortable on the ball, highly composed in 1 vs 1 situations and look a bit languid unlike say Vidic and Kompany.
He is clearly the best defender in the World and I said a few pages back that I did not think a CB could have this level of impact the way Football was going.
I agree he is more similar in overall style to Rio, but it's true that van Dijk is more dominant in the air. If you think about it, would you rather have two Rio's or Rio and Vidic? Even though I think Rio was a level above, I'd still go for Rio and Vidic because it was such a complimentary partnership. The main thing Vidic offered in that partnership was dominating in the air. That was never a weakness of Rio's, but it wasn't a strength to the same degree.
Whereas I think I'd probably go for 2x van Dijk rather than van Dijk and Vidic, just because his aerial dominance would be that bit less valuable.
Exactly.
I also think Rio was way more dominant in the air than people are giving him credit for. That’s my memory of him anyway. Vidic was so aggressive in the air that he tended to be the first to most clearances but Rio was tall and strong, with a decent leap and hardly ever lost whatever aerial duels he did have to deal with.
Feck it. This discussion is making me depressed. Can you imagine how much better we’d be right now with peak Rio and Vida in central defence?!
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Talk about overrated. He's not even in the conversation yet.
He will never be in a conversation about best players when it also includes Bergkamp and Nistelrooy.
Both were astonishing players who did extraordinary things.
he is a good defender in an age of average defenders.
Stam was better than him...
I KNOW. And the fact he's not even mentioned is funny as feck, the Liverpool love-in is absolutely unbearable.....imagine when they win the fecking league. I might have to leave the country for the entire summer.
Chris Sutton went too far this time. Everyone has concrete evidence that he’s nothing more than a common troll now.
Rio was fantastic in the air defensively, among the best in the world. Was disappointing in attacking set-pieces but was seldom ever bettered aerially when defending.
Bergkamp is #1 by some distance. What a magical player he was.
The most overrated player in the world. I think he's a fantastic player but the way pundits and Liverpool fans go on about him like he's the greatest defender we've seen is this country is ridiculous.
Van persie > van dijk
Sutton only started watching football this season then.
Yeah ok......
Sutton tends to talk crap.
He may not even be the best Dutch defender in premier league history. Jaap Stam was immense. Van Persie, Berkamp, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Edwin Van Der Sar all world class.
They all won stuff too.
That’s irrelevant as to how good a player is though.