After two-and-a-half seasons of imperious form for Liverpool, Virgil van Dijk has seen his form scrutinised of late and a former Premier League striker has waded into the debate by proclaiming that he’d be the Dutchman’s “worst nightmare.”
Finally arriving at Anfield in January 2018 for a then world record £75millon fee for a defender, Van Dijk helped transform Jurgen Klopp’s side from being contenders to winners of football’s biggest prizes.
Helping the Reds to win the Champions League in 2018/19, Van Dijk was part of their sides that secured the UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and Premier League title – their first League Championship for 30 years – last season.
Such form saw him named PFA Players’ Player of the Year and UEFA Player of the Year in 2019 while he ran Lionel Messi close for the Ballon d’Or.
However, after making a mistake in Liverpool’s first Premier League game of the current campaign that enabled newly-promoted Leeds United to score and having been part of the defence that shipped seven goals at Aston Villa in the Reds most-recent fixture, Van Dijk has found himself in the spotlight with the likes of Sol Campbell questioning how he’d shape up against some of the Premier League’s all-time greats in his position.
Now, another of the division’s luminaries, the once-prolific marksman Andy Cole, has claimed that he’d fancy his chances against the Liverpool man if in his prime.
Cole, who is third on the all-time list of Premier League top scorers with 187 goals (93 of which were for Manchester United) behind Alan Shearer (260) and Wayne Rooney (208), told Sunday World : “Van Dijk is a really good player, but I’m the kind of individual who would love to have played against him - and I feel like I would have got to him.
“You want to test yourself against the best and he is the best at the moment, without a doubt, but I like to look at defenders and find weaknesses in them and we have seen a few with Van Dijk in the last few months.
“I watched him in the opening game of the season against Leeds and the strikers who give him problems are the ones who run in behind him and stretch him.
“They scored three goals that day and he didn’t look like he enjoyed the experience.
“He is a Rolls-Royce of a defender, but he didn’t like putting his foot down and chasing back when people were getting in behind him.
“That’s what I would have done all day when I was at my best, so I would probably have been his worst nightmare if I was playing against him.”
