Teaching Liverpool well. They're all aura defending in Militao goal.
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Virgil van Dijk | Performances
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
The best CB in premier league history.... 
I’d rather have shot-to-bits knees Aston Villa-era Paul McGrath over this guy.
Can he even be considered a defender? He doesn’t do defending.
The problem with this title of his, is that it was given by the media, who as we are well aware, have about 90% allegiance to Liverpool.The best CB in premier league history....
He had a couple of absolute brilliant seasons but I still wouldn’t have had him over the established elite Rio/Vidic/Terry/Carvalho. I possibly wouldnt have him over peak William Gallas due to Gallas’ versatility.
Given his current plight has now gone for an extended period of time I’d say he should no longer be considered World class and instead be firmly in the tier below. Just a decent international quality player. That’s no insult to him but he has not had enough consistent form to be a truly elite defender.
For me Vidic is as good as any CB I’ve seen in the PL. I’d have give him the slight edge over Rio. Terry would be number 3 for me.
VVD is way behind the pack.
At his peak he was the best in the world, you can make a case of who was better strictly talking about peaks.
But overall he has no chance, all the names you mentioned are well above him.
Last season he wasn't this bad so can we fairly say that his knee injury is the maik reason he's turned into shit now ? Isn't it more likely that he simply declined ?
Yeah I say that’s pretty fair. But if his decline continues and his peak proves to be incredibly brief, then there’s simply no way on gods earth he could be considered amongst the best ever. The scouse loving media will continue to place him there though.
For a couple of seasons strikers feared taking him on. Almost overnight they started doing it and realised he just backs off and off. Very odd to watch.
I think all 3 had ultimately something different to offer. Terry was slow as feck but his reading of the game kept that from hindering him and he could ping a mean hoof with his left foot. Vidic was at his peak a very very strong defender with little to no flaws although he never could handle prime Torres for some reason. Rio could have been at peak Barcelona, technically very sound and was pretty fast too. Honestly it’s very hard to pick a best for me but no doubt we won’t see better partnerships than Rio/Vidic and Terry/Carvalho for a very long time.
Vidic had like 1-2 poor games against Torres in all the times he faced him. Think this narrative keeps getting thrown out there.
Yep, there’s a red card that’s given to his struggles v Torres when Vidic was sent off long after Torres was subbed out.
I'd love a former defender or someone like Rio talk us through Van Dijk's woes and if it's a case of him being found out, injuries taking its toll or something else.
Vvd isn't close to kompany or vidic. Catch yourself on. They don't it for longer at as high or higher a level. Vvd had 2 maybe 3? Great seasons.
I love how crap he is. It really annoyed me having to say Salah, VVD and Allison were the best players in their position in the league and in the conversation for them to be in PL all time teams (Still probably would have picked others but it's close in the case of VVD and Salah at their peak). Now that the former two have been absolute cack this year it's beautiful.
Still cant believe he was ever mentioned in the same sentence as Vidić or Rio.
This myth needs to die.
Shell of his former self
Has he been dribbled past yet though?
Absolutely a parody player these days. Best defender in the PL history they said. That video of Keano and Carra picking the best players from the 99 team and that Liverpool team that was the best of all times is hysterical.
He's done.
For some reason it won't. It's just repeated ad nauseam and taken as a fact. He had a couple of poor games against him, but "handled" him just as many times if not more.
As for "hard to pick a best", honestly it's not really - Rio was a notch above all the others, then very close you have your Vidic, Terry, Carvalho (I had a soft spot for him), then the others.
Just thinking of van Dijk again, it's amazing how he approaches defending, it's like in dangerous moments he's trying to organise his non-responsibility, not committing, letting others make those last ditch tackles, being as far away as possible from the action. He's being portrayed as this leader, but he's a coward defensively.
Reign on top was shorter than leprechauns
Too right. Was an absolute monster and part of the best defence we have ever seen in the PL. I suppose the only thing against him in regards to Rio and Terry is longevity in the league.
This is it. It’s why I said yesterday that you can’t consider him a defender as he does no defending.
It’s extremely cowardly. I’m not sure if you remember Sancho’s goal vs them at OT this season, but he essentially stood off the play with his hands behind his back ‘leaning’ to where the play was. He did the same thing in the CL final and numerous other times. It’s not defending. It’s not defending the play and it’s not defending the space either. It’s just non committal and awful defending from their captain.
I wish @Boss was here. There would be a defend the space thread any minute now...
PL CBs who were better than VVD include Rio, Vidic, Terry, Carvalho, Campbell, King, Adams, Stam, Kompany and Desailly. I'm sure there's some I've forgotten and VVD doesn't make the top 10 when put under real scrutiny.
Unironically, VVD did/does defend with his "aura". It's like he'd just back off from attackers, knowing he had the pace and power to recover if he needed, but normally they'd make a mistake or pass sideways or backwards
Personally I'd say Jaap Stam is the best I've seen , there's at least 10 better than Van Dijk in the Premier league era. It was a joke they called him the best ever. Nearly as bad as calling Trent a world class defender
He literally had one bad moment letting the ball bounce against him in about a dozen meetings. Absolutely baffling that this myth persists as if no defender has ever made a mistake that was capitalised by a striker.
Rio pretty fast too? He was absolutely rapid and won foot races with prime Etoo and prime Torres. Ferguson had him down as the top five fastest players he had ever had, not even mentioning Ronaldo in that discussion. Terry was brilliant when play suited him. When Villas Boas took over, Terry was quite poor because of the high line. He was much more suited to Mourinho's style of play. I struggle to see a system where Rio would not thrive. He would probably be at his very best in an expansive style with a high line - most likely absolutely brilliant in Pep's City set-up.
Not sure if Vidic really struggled that much with Torres overall, but it's a bit like the myth of Evra and Lennon - a couple of matches skewed the perception of many.
TAA a world class defender? One could argue that he was a world class player at one point, but never in a million years was he ever a world class defender.
Never seen such hyperbole around a player as with this guy. Hopefully they keep hold of him for as long as possible.
Torres scored 3 in 15 games vs United so nowhere near as great vs Vidic as people make out
Yeah that would be a short argument too.
Possibly but big mistakes tend to stick with people more than consistent performances. I could be wrong but I believe he struggled in a few games against Torres. Not just the game he was sent off and run around. But it was years ago so again I could be remembering wrong.
Seen plenty of people claiming he's the best player in his position (RB) in the world, a massive part of his position is being able to defend. The hype has gone to his head so much he thinks he doesn't even have to work hard to try and defend situations because he's so good at passing
Its a myth that won't die.
Someone in the media parroted it once and now it gets stuck.
Vidic handled Torres with ease on numerous occasions.