Kolo Toure, who very much became a fan-favourite at Liverpool during his few seasons at the club, has praised Virgil van Dijk and explained why our no.4 is the best defender on the planet.
The Dutchman was yet again the top centre-back in the Premier League by a country mile in 2019/20, as he was the year previous, only this time it earned him the title – our first for 30 years.
Toure though reckons Van Dijk has one small weakness – when a player aggressively attacks him one-on-one – which in fairness we cannot agree with.
VVD is stronger than any attacker, just as fast, and reads the game just as well.
He doesn’t dive in, but often he forces a player into a shot from a position he knows they won’t score from, especially as Alisson is behind him. It’s not bad defending – it’s smart.
“He’s an unbelievable player. He’s a top player. He’s got speed, height, he can jump. He’s got technique. He can switch the game with his long passes. He has got everything,” Toure said on Goal.
“I haven’t seen many players challenge him one on one. In my opinion, that’s his weakness! He’s really tall and if you really attack him with the ball, he can struggle, but he’s so clever.”
“He’s so clever because he drops well, but if you are really aggressive in attack in a one-on-one, I think you can get something from him,” Toure added.
“He’s a really clever player. He’s got [Joe] Gomez on his side, good players on his side to help him as well. There are good players around him and I think that makes his game easy, but I think he’s got so many qualities.”
Our brilliant Dutchman is 29-years-old, which means he’s still got three to four years left at the very pinnacle of the game, and considering his style and the fact he was a late-bloomer anyway, maybe a few more on top of that.
He’s already proven to be worth every penny of what we paid for him, but by the time he pulls the curtain on his Anfield career, he might just be the best defender in our history.
With Virg monitoring the backline, Liverpool will likely be favourites for the Premier League title once more. If you can’t wait that long to have a flutter, check out live casino list by HEX website instead.
Manchester City will obviously be big contenders, and Chelsea and United will spend big – but we’re more than happy with the options already at our disposal.
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