Kompany and Vidic retired at 34 and Ferdinand’s powers were waning – yet the rush to criticise Van Dijk is reaching fever pitch and bordering on obsession
The closer you fly to the Premier League’s all-time XI, the greater the revelry among rival fans when you stumble during this career-long audition.
This is the case for Virgil van Dijk, who now Kevin De Bruyne has left for Italy is the current Premier League player – perhaps along with Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah – closest to troubling a debate that few can ever agree on anyway.
Van Dijk was at his imperious best last season, the bedrock of Liverpool’s title triumph and Gary Neville’s pick for player of the year.
“He just seems to cover the whole back four as one defender,” Neville said in April. “He’s a unique defender. I’ve not seen a centre-half as good as him for a long, long time.”
How quickly times change, for after sticking his backside out against Chelsea as Moises Caicedo rifled one into the top corner, Van Dijk is under further scrutiny following his display in the defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
United fans in particular happily forgot Nemanja Vidic’s own struggles against Fernando Torres when delighting in Van Dijk’s sluggish performance, while Neville was left “stunned” during commentary when watching Bryan Mbeumo catch Liverpool’s centre-back unawares for the first goal.
A fellow ex-United captain weighed in, Roy Keane adding: “I’d be looking at him [Van Dijk]. What are you doing? He’s a big leader and we’re looking at moments.
“A couple of years ago he spoke about United coming here parking the bus, well they’ve scored two today, two last year, and you’re the centre-half of this team… Always start with the man in the mirror. Have a good look at yourself. Little incidents with the goal, we give United plaudits, but I do look at him thinking, ‘Are you really sprinting back?’”
Any question over Van Dijk being finished is certainly wide of the mark, but at 34 it is reasonable to suggest he has approached the beginning of the end of his career at the very top.
Liverpool are aware of this themselves and already planning for the future. They could miss out on Marc Guehi, but The i Paper reported last week that Borussia Dortmund centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck is viewed as a potential long-term replacement for Van Dijk.
Van Dijk meanwhile has a contract at Liverpool until 2027. He will turn 36 that summer and may have to defy the natural career progression of other great centre-backs should he want to remain a huge influence at Liverpool beyond then.
What were PL greats doing at 34?
Tony Adams: Playing his penultimate season at Arsenal, starting 38 games in all comps in 2000-01 season.
Sol Campbell: Playing his final season at Portsmouth (2008-09) before joining Notts County.
Rio Ferdinand: Playing his penultimate season at Manchester United, starting 31 games in all comps in 2012-13 season.
Vincent Kompany: Playing for Anderlecht before retiring and becoming their head coach.
John Terry: Playing for Chelsea, including every minute of their 2014-15 Premier League-winning campaign.
Nemanja Vidic: At Inter Milan but not playing due to injury. Retired in January 2016, three months after turning 34.
Vidic left United a five-time Premier League winner in 2014 at the age of 32, and he eventually retired at the age Van Dijk currently is – 34 years and three months.
Rio Ferdinand meanwhile also departed United in 2014 aged 35 and retired a year later, having won six league titles and partnered Vidic in their 2008 Champions League triumph as well.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 22: Rio Ferdinand (L) and Nemanja Vidic of Manchester United celebrate with the Barclays Premier League trophy after the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester United and Blackpool at Old Trafford on May 22, 2011 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Ferdinand and Vidic were a formidable duo for Man Utd (Photo: Getty)
That brings us neatly to John Terry, who eventually did lift the Champions League trophy in 2012 on top of his five Premier League wins.
Terry played every single league minute of Chelsea’s title-winning campaign in 2014-15, the season he turned 34, but thereafter his influence waned, his body catching up and making just nine league appearances in 2016-17. He then played one final campaign with Aston Villa in the Championship before retiring at 37.
Other candidates for this never-ending debate include Vincent Kompany, Sol Campbell and Tony Adams.
Kompany suffered several injury setbacks during the second half of his 11-year Manchester City career, and played his final game for the club aged 33 before retiring at 34.
Campbell’s minutes at Arsenal tumbled after he turned 30, while Adams played the majority of Arsenal’s league games from the 1986-87 season until his penultimate campaign in 2000-01. He retired at 35 in 2002.
Such comparisons therefore suggest Van Dijk is entering territory perhaps only Terry ever flirted with, and make any joy taken from his potential decline laughable. If anything, Van Dijk is defying the trend of legends past, particularly as he remains one of the first names on Arne Slot’s teamsheet.
That should give us another couple of years at least of working out where he ranks, and for some he would need to add to his trophy haul to be considered the cream of the crop.
Van Dijk does boast one accolade only Ferdinand can surpass, and that is a recognition for his consistency by his peers having made the PFA Team of the Year on five occasions.
Ferdinand leads the centre-back cohort in that regard with six inclusions, putting Van Dijk second. Beyond that it goes Vidic, Adams and Terry (all four) then Campbell and Kompany (three).
Allow me to don my tin hat before making Terry and Vidic my centre-back duo of choice. Van Dijk pushes Ferdinand for me in that spot for third, and given the Liverpool captain can still add to his legacy there is time for the Dutchman to climb into the XI.
Father Time though is just as unforgiving as Football Twitter, meaning many will, unfairly, continue to remove Van Dijk from the conversation should his United display become the norm.
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