VIRGIL VAN DIJK is the best centre-half the Premier League has ever seen.
That is the opinion of former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, who has labelled the Liverpool star “invincible”.
Since joining the Reds for £75million from Southampton in January 2018, Van Dijk has become one of the world’s best players.
This was shown when he finished runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2019 Balon d’Or.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Keown, one of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ was full of praise for the 28-year-old.
He said: “I think he has to be [the best ever].
“It’s almost perfection to watch him play.”
TERRY LEADS THE WAY
But how does he rate to five fellow defensive rocks considered by many to to be the best in their position?
SunSport believes John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Vincent Kompany and Ledley King can stake their claim to that honour, and checks out the stats that matter.
Terry won the most games of all six, but that doesn’t say much until you work out the win percentage.
VAN DIJK WITH WORK TO DO
But it is Terry who has the highest of that – tied with Manchester City legend Kompany.
Van Dijk isn’t that far behind however with a win percentage of 59.7 per cent.
Unfortunately to fly in the face of Keown’s opinion, the stats on clean sheet percentage say that Van Dijk is beaten again – and again it is by Chelsea stalwart Terry.
Van Dijk comes in at 37.4 per cent, which is lower than Ferdinand’s 37.5 per cent.
But once again it is Terry leading the way with a clean sheet percentage of 43.5 per cent.
Overall, Ledley King falls just short of the other five – but his Spurs team were often chasing the other players’ teams at the top.
John Terry is regarded as one of the finest ever defenders – and the stats prove itCredit: AP:Associated Press
Virgil van Dijk finished as runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2019 Balon d’OrCredit: EPA
Virgil Van Dijk Ballon d’or runner up says we should all be proud of what we achieved
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
