Virgil van Dijk’s former team-mate on what he’s like to play with – ‘Little bit frustrating’

Shane Long spent a number of years playing alongside Virgil van Dijk at Southampton, and says the Dutchman is a touch frustrating to work with at times – albeit in a good way

Shane Long has heaped praise on Virgil van Dijk, claiming his impact at Liverpool has been nothing short of transformative.

The Irish striker, who played alongside Van Dijk at Southampton, lauded his former team-mate for making everyone around him better and for his effortless style of play. In an exclusive chat with Ladbrokes, Long said: “Virgil van Dijk is just irreplaceable; you can just see how much better he makes every other player around him, and how much easier he makes things for them.

“He’s a Rolls Royce – whenever I played against him, I always played off the other centre-back, put it that way. He’s quick, he’s strong, he reads the game so well.

“You never really see him making sliding tackles because he’s always there in the first place, he never really has to sprint because he’s got such a great reading of the game. Everything just comes so easy to him, which is a little bit frustrating, to be honest.

“He’s one of the best centre-backs I think the Premier League has ever seen. At Southampton we saw it, day-in, day-out, on the training ground and on the pitch – and the whole world has seen it since he’s played for Liverpool.

“Full credit to him, because he’s worked hard… I think Southampton paid £13m for him, and a lot of teams didn’t want to take that kind of chance on him because he was coming from the Scottish league, but he came down and showed the whole world what he can do.

“You know, in the last couple of years, my little man is eight now, and I’ve shown him a Virgil van Dijk top upstairs, and he’s like, ‘No way!’

“When I’m out in the garden trying to give him coaching lessons, he’s always been like, ‘Daddy, what do you know?’ But I think now he knows I must know a bit.”

Van Dijk spent two years with Groningen before making the move to Celtic in 2013, where he lifted two Scottish Premierships and a Scottish League Cup under Neil Lennon and Ronny Deila.

An £11.5m move to Southampton followed in 2015, where Van Dijk proved his worth in one of the most physically demanding leagues in the world of football in the Premier League.

Jurgen Klopp then brought the centre-half to Liverpool for a world-record fee of £75m in 2018, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward to 2025, and the club captain has lifted two Premier League titles with the Reds, four domestic cups, and a Champions League. Despite uncertainty surrounding his future during the 2024/25 season, he remained committed on the field as Liverpool clinched their 20th league title.

To the relief of Arne Slot and his team, Van Dijk will stay with the club until July 2027 after signing a two-year extension in April, along with star forward Mohamed Salah. On the other hand, Long had an eight-year stint with Southampton from 2014 to 2022, before moving to Reading. However, he hung up his boots at the end of the 2022/23 season.

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