Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk put in another excellent performance on Sunday, frustrating Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
The 2-0 win Liverpool are nine points clear at the top – and 11 points ahead of four-time champions City.
It introduced former Reds defender Jamie Carragher explain on social media, external The Van Dijk is “the best central defender we have ever seen in the Premier League”.
“I always said that John Terry before Van Dijk came,” he continued.
“All the great defenders of the past have had attackers who caused them problems, but who ever gives Van Dijk any?”
“He just played against him [Real Madrid’s Kylian] Mbappe and Haaland have played with such ease over the last four days that he could have been playing with a cigar.
“Please stop this silly debate about the best centre-back, it’s not even close.”
Dutch defender Van Dijk, 33, more than justified the world record £75million Liverpool paid Southampton to sign him in 2018, helping the Reds win the Premier League and Champions League titles .
The former Celtic player has won 148 of his 210 Premier League games for Liverpool, with his 70.5% win rate – the centre-back – second only to the Manchester City defender John Stones and former Manchester United player Nemanja Vidic.
Only Vidic, Arsenal legend Tony Adams and Chelsea icon Terry have a higher clean sheet rate than Van Dijk at 43% at Liverpool (among players with 200 or more starts).
Van Dijk has won a higher percentage of tackles and aerial duels than any other central defender in the Premier League since 2006/07 (except those who haven't been involved in many).
Among centre-backs who have played 3,500 minutes or more since January 2018, Van Dijk has been dribbled past him fewer times per 90 minutes than anyone else. On average, a player passes him once every seven games (it only happened 29 times).
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, former Blackburn striker Chris Sutton said: “[Ex-Leeds and Manchester United player] Rio Ferdinand was a slightly different player than Terry.
“Terry was a phenomenal defender. Tony Adams was a brilliant leader.”
“I also understand the call for Van Dijk. He simply has everything. People looked at Ferdinand's trophy haul and said, 'Well, it must be him'.”
“At the moment I think he is – that kind of bothers me, but John Terry was phenomenal too. So can we have a threesome together – Terry, Ferdinand and Van Dijk?”
Former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given added it was “all about different opinions”.
“Ferdinand, Terry, Vidic, Jonathan Woodgate in his prime, before he went to Real Madrid, Colin Hendry in Blackburn, John Stones get a mention in his prime?”
And he added: “What a player” Paul McGrath Was.
We want you to rate these 10 legendary Premier League centre-backs. There were so many high-quality examples to choose from that some legends had to forego the bid.
