2018/19 Season Report Card - Virgil Van Dijk

Last but not least in this series of report cards, we come to Virgil Van Dijk. I saved the best until last. And he was the best. The best at Liverpool. The best in the Premier League. The best in the Champions League. Basically, he’s just the best.

Not just the best defender either. Over the past year he’s probably been the most dominant player in the world. He may or may not be rewarded for that form with a Balon d’or, but it doesn’t really change anything if he misses out. He's the fucking man.

It’s always going to be more difficult for defenders to win individual honours, especially when Lionel Messi is around. It’s difficult comparing them too, because they do completely different jobs. Messi is the best ‘footballer’ in the world (perhaps the best to ever) but currently Van Dijk might just be the best ‘player’, if that makes sense? 

Look at it this way. Was anyone better in their respective position this season than Virgil? Could he (or any defender) have done any better than he did in 2018/19? How could he have improved on what he did? Other than scoring more goals I'm not sure it's possible.

Virgil should score more goals but he did alright and is getting better all the time. Defensively though, he was as close to flawless as you’re likely to see.

We’ve had some great centre halves at Liverpool. Truly great ones. None have been like this guy though. With the other greats, there was always something that you could say they weren’t the best at.

Sami Hyypia wasn’t the quickest, Carra wasn’t either and he was also a little undersized for what you’d ideally want in a centre back. Alan Hansen wasn’t the most physical, neither was Lawro. All were world class, but none were what you could call the complete package. 

Virgil though? There isn’t one weakness there. He’s great at everything. There is no part of his game that you think ‘he needs to work on that’ as he’s just fantastic at everything. He’ll out run you. He’ll outjump you. He’ll outthink you. He’ll outplay you. If necessary, he’ll outfight you.

He can run like Usain Bolt, jump like Michael Jordan, read the game like Franco Baresi and pass like Xabi Alonso. He’s ridiculous. He actually beat Adama Traore in a race down the touchline at Wolves. He also dominated aerially against every striker he faced and as we know, no-one was able to dribble past him. 

He makes it look so easy that sometimes it’s taken for granted just how well he’s played. Because he’s rarely having to make last ditch challenges and blocks, and he’s hardly ever at full stretch, it looks like he’s not had much to do. There’s a reason it looks like he hasn’t had much to do though. It’s because it’s easy for him and very few players can actually make him work for his money.

One of the biggest differences he’s brought to our game is something that largely goes un-noticed. When the opposition try to put a ball over the top or just try to knock it long and play for second balls, we’ve had problems with that in the past. Defenders would be at full stretch and would often only be able to clear it straight to the opposition and allow them to mount attacks, or at the very least get up the field and relieve the pressure from themselves.

Now? It just doesn’t happen, because Virgil doesn’t just win those balls, he knocks them down to his own team-mates and allows us to keep up the pressure. He does it constantly, and because he does it so easily it’s barely even mentioned. I see it all the time though and just marvel at the difference he’s made. There’ll be a difficult looking ball played down the channel that has him turned around, and he’ll just rise like a salmon and knock it down perfectly into the path of Robertson, or he’ll bring it down on his mighty chest and roll it to Fabinho to get us going again. It’s only a little thing but it makes a huge difference.

Much is made of the “never been dribbled past” stat and while it’s importance is probably a little over-stated, it’s cool as fuck and it’s causing some serious fume from opposition fans, specifically the Blues and City (who are effectively one and the same these days anyway). When you look at the list of names Virgil has come up against over the past year, it’s remarkable that none have managed to dribble past him (apparently Leroy Sane did it on international duty, but that doesn’t count as Virg wasn’t playing for the Reds).

How many have even tried though? That’s probably the more telling stat. Great players don’t even bother attempting to go past him because they know it’s futile. They just pass it to someone else and avoid the ignominy of being mugged by the big man.

Van Dijk has transformed this team. He is the most expensive player in the history of the club and yet he’s also one of our greatest bargains. Seriously, he is. £75m is a steal. He’s at least doubled his value already, but that’s not even the point I’m making. He’s made everyone else better too. 

Joel Matip was being linked with Fulham six months ago, then he looked absolutely magnificent in the second half of the season. Joe Gomez looks like a superstar after playing four or five months alongside Big Virg. And if that’s not enough to prove my point, how about this; last year Dejan Lovren went from a whipping boy to performing like one of the best defenders in the world. 

Van Dijk is the common denominator in all of that. The players still have to perform and they deserve credit in their own right, but none of them would have looked as accomplished as they have without the influence of Van Dijk, on and off the field. Just by being around him players become better. He’s a leader, but he’s also humble and he inspires confidence in those around him.

Now, even when they aren’t partnered by him they still look great because they’re all full of confidence in themselves. Lovren reached a world cup final without Virgil, but would he have performed as well as he did if he hadn’t spent those months building his confidence alongside Big Virg? No chance.

The big man’s influence has been fucking huge. On our team, on the fans and on his fellow defenders. Everyone has so much more confidence now. 

Losing him for any significant period of time would be a huge blow, but when he missed the home leg with Bayern Munich Matip and Fabinho held down the fought and we kept a comfortable clean sheet. We can cope without him for the odd game, but his availability is the biggest key to any success we will have.

He’s our most important player and it’s not even close. The impact he’s had on his own team-mates is matched only by that he’s had on the opposition. He intimidates people. Not through fear, but just because he’s so good and so dominant. No-one looks forward to playing against him.

The real beauty of it is that we’ve now got the Van Dijk of goalkeepers in Alisson, and the Van Dijk of midfielders in Fabinho. Imagine being an opposing player lined up next to them in the tunnel. You’d be thinking “we’ve got no fucking chance here”. Big, physical, dominant specimens.

When he first arrived, I compared Virgil to LeBron James. By that I mean when you watch him, it’s almost unfair how superior he is to everybody else. Both Van Dijk and LeBron always look like they’re the fifth year senior (or year 11 or whatever the fuck it’s called now) who gatecrashed a game with the little first years on the playground. They’re just bigger, faster, stronger and better than everyone else. Physically they’re just superior, but ability wise they are too. Most opponents are powerless when they come up against them,

Troy Deeney summed it up better than anybody really, saying “I’ve said it many times, I hate him. I hate going up against him. He’s too big, too strong, too quick, too good on the ball, loves fighting, a good head of hair. He’s one of those guys that sprays on his top as well, so it smells lovely!”

Quite.

Rating 10 / 10

As difficult as it is to top what he did this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was even better next year. 

Best Moment: 

It would have been the marvellous way he handled the two against one break against Son and Sissoko, but Andy Robbo stole his thunder when he did the same thing, only against Messi, Suarez and Alba.

I'm tempted to go with the ‘assist’ for Origi’s derby winner, but it’s probably the vital header away at Bayern. That was a great moment. The pass to set up Mané in that game was pretty special too.

Worst Moment:

I’m struggling here. There was the mix up with Alisson at Fulham that led to Babel scoring, but I’ll go for letting Suarez run off the back of him for Barca’s first goal in Camp Nou.

The future?

More of the same. He’s coming into his prime but probably still has six or seven years left at his best level before he starts slowing down. He seems to love it here so there’s no reason why he won’t spend those years here, and if he does (and if we continue to win trophies) there’s a chance he might go down as our greatest ever player.