Virgil van Dijk has won everything with Liverpool, but he is still lacking one thing if he wants to remembered as a Premier League great – according to former Manchester City skipper Richard Dunne
Arne Slot on Liverpool’s fixture list
He may have won everything with Liverpool, but Virgil van Dijk needs to lift another title to be considered as one of the Premier League’s best all-time centre-halves.
That’s the view of former Manchester City skipper Richard Dunne, who says van Dijk cannot compare to John Terry or Rio Ferdinand because he has only won one Premier League with Liverpool.
Van Dijk has won seven major honours with the Reds, including the Champions League, during his seven years at Anfield, but Dunne argues that he needs multiple title wins to be an all-time great.
Ferdinand won six titles under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Terry five at Chelsea and Dunne says this is the benchmark for van Dijk. In Liverpool history, a number of centre-halves have won multiple titles and Alan Hansen leads the way with eight, while Phil Thompson has seven and Mark Lawrenson five.
Dunne does concede that van Dijk has lacked that solid centre-half partner and he has Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate partnering him at Liverpool. “Virgil van Dijk is outstanding, but he only has one Premier League winners medal,” Dunne told BetVictor.
“He’s on a lesser level to defenders that led their teams to multiple trophies, such as John Terry or Rio Ferdinand. “That said, he’s never had that solid partner, which is a massive part of pushing for consistent trophies. His individual performances have been world class for years.”
Dunne, who won 80 caps for the Republic of Ireland and played for Everton, Aston Villa and QPR, picked out Arsenal’s defensive duo of William Saliba and Gabriel as the best partnership in Europe. The pair were a big factor in Arsenal having the best defence in the Premier League last season, as the Gunners only conceded 29 goals.
Arsenal have shipped six in their opening seven Premier League games this season, but they have been to Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham. Dunne loves they way Saliba and Gabriel celebrate making a block or a challenge and fears what will happen Arsenal if one of them is injured.
“William Saliba and Gabriel are an outstanding partnership,” he said. “They celebrate every time they win a challenge and it’s nice to see guys that enjoy the art of defending. “The problem comes for Arsenal if one of those two gets injured, they’re irreplaceable. They are the best in the Premier League without doubt and are among those top-level partnerships in Europe.”
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