“I don’t think he’s the best”: Allardyce shares thoughts on Van Dijk after Carragher comments | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has been back to his impervious best this season but it seems opinions are still split on the talents of our captain.

Speaking on ‘No Tippy Tappy Football’, Sam Allardyce was asked to respond to Jamie Carragher’s comments about the Dutchman and whether he agreed that our man was the best defender the Premier League has ever seen.

The 70-year-old said: “I don’t think he’s the best of all time, no.

“Not with what we’ve seen in the Premier League over the years and what the quality of the centre-halves has been. He should be in the top six, but he’s not number one.

“I think that he now seems to have fully recovered from the cruciate. So, after he got injured at Everton and he had a cruciate ligament operation, he came back and looked a yard short. It looked like he couldn’t quite read the game as well as he used to.

“But he seems to have overcome that now, and that is a huge injury to overcome by the way, and he’s back on top form.

“So, he’s right up there, there’s no doubt. But I wouldn’t call him the number one of all time. It’s a big shout, that one.

“But Carragher’s bound to say that because he’s Liverpool, isn’t he? I’d say he’s the best now. In fact, by far the best now, certainly with the way he’s playing this year. It’ll be a big miss to Liverpool if they lose him.”

It wasn’t a fully negative response from the former England manager but we’d love to know the five central defenders who have been better than our skipper, since 1992.

Virgil van Dijk seems to be back to the peak of his powers

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The defensive assets of the captain of his nation are clear to see and that’s why we’ve had such a stern back line this season so far.

If there was an area to improve on it would be the finishing of the 33-year-old, with Roy Keane stating that he had to do better with the attacking chances that came his way against Manchester City.

Arne Slot will be delighted with the performances of his defender though and long may his form continue, meaning that his place as the best we’ve ever seen will be an opinion held by everyone within the game.

Now just the small matter of getting that new contract sorted!

You can watch Allardyce’s comments on Van Dijk via No Tippy Tappy Football on YouTube:

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