He may no longer be at the level he was at between 2018 to 2020, but during that, period Virgil van Dijk was the best centre-back the Premier League had ever seen.
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When the Reds paid €85 million (R1.7 billion) for the Dutchman in January 2018, a world-record for a defender at the time, I wondered what made him so special that a club like Liverpool would go and spend an uncharacteristically large amount of money like that on a central defender.
However, the moment he donned that jersey, it made absolute sense. Looking back, it may have been a bargain, because he immediately turned the team's defensive fortunes around. Prior to his arrival, it seemed as though Jurgen Klopp's charges had a 'we'll outscore you' approach to games due to their defensive frailty, but the moment Van Dijk was integrated into the team, that all changed as he brought an assuredness to their backline that resembled that of a title-winning team.
Almost single-handedly, through his speed, his aerial prowess and his defensive awareness, the team became more solid defensively, and a by-product of that was that there was even more freedom for their attackers to go all out.
During that two-year period, it seemed as though nobody could get past the Netherlands captain, and even if a player managed to catch him off-guard, he had the intelligence and ability to track back and rectify his mistakes almost immediately. Between 2018 and 2020, he helped the Reds to two UEFA Champions League finals, winning the latter in Madrid against Tottenham Hotspur, where he was Man of the Match, and also helped end their 30-year wait for a Premier League title.
He was so good in the 2018/19 season, he finished second in the Ballon d'Or voting, an award he probably should've won but for whatever reason Lionel Messi claimed it for a sixth time. Nevertheless, it was a remarkable achievement for a central defender to be in the conversation for the world's best player when the likes of the aforementioned Argentine and Cristiano Ronaldo were still at their peaks.
People will throw in names such as Steve Bruce, Rio Ferdinand, Vincent Kompany, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Tony Adams, Ricardo Carvalho and Nemanja Vidic but all those guys were paired with centre-backs who also had a case for being world-class. With all due respect to Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, none of them were anywhere near Van Dijk's level. Even in terms of ability, perhaps only Ferdinand and Kompany have a case for doing what the Breda native could and, even then, it's not a sure thing.
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The one thing the aforementioned legends have on him is legacy. A Jordan Pickford horror tackle at the beginning of the 2020/21 season sidelined the 64-cap Netherlands international for eight months as he ruptured his cruciate ligament. He has not been the same since the injury, but he is still one of the best defenders in the world, just no longer in a category of his own. His peak was, however, unprecedented, and it will be a long time before we see such dominance from a centre-back in the English top flight again.
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