Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has waxed lyrical about Virgil van Dijk, the centre-back he regards as the best in the business – not that that should ever be in question!
Speaking to Sky Sports, the German said: ‘In the last two years he’s [Van Dijk’s] shown he is definitely one of the best, even maybe the best at the moment. He is a beast.
‘You always look up to those kind of players because these two centre-backs are, at the moment, the best centre-back, so of course you can learn something from them.
‘Everyone has their own style of playing, but you can learn from them.’
Van Dijk has been as utterly dominant this season as he was in 2018/19, when he won the PFA Player of the Year award – and we collated some of his best bits earlier today for your viewing pleasure!
Rudiger himself is one of the Premier League’s top centre-backs, but the gap between van Dijk and the next best is enormous.
He really is in a league of his own right now. Liverpool’s no.4 is the best passer of any centre-back, the strongest, the quickest, the best in the air and the most composed. He’s also arguably the best leader and communicator, too.
Van Dijk is unlikely to win any individual awards this term, as it seems a defender can never have ownership of them like attackers do – but Liverpool’s title winning season in 2019/20 will be because of the Dutchman as much as anyone else.