Liverpool’s breathless chase of Virgil Van Dijk during the summer is known to everyone that even mildly follows English football. Liverpool were so desperate to bring the Dutch International to Anfield that at one point of time the Saints had to intervene and they accused Liverpool of ‘tapping up’ the player. Though at the end of the transfer window, Liverpool failed to get their man and he is still a Southampton player.
But there are some strong beliefs acround Merseyside that Liverpool will once again go back for the 25-year-old even though they keep searching for other options. And now former Man Utd player Owen Hargreaves has claimed that Van Dijk is one of the best defenders in the world and he deserves to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona one day. According to Owen, any defender would want to play in a team which has some sort of protection in front of him.
“I would want to play as a centre-back where I was a little bit protected, where I had people in front of me, because if you look at look at Liverpool and you go to Manchester City, van Dijk is not going to fix Liverpool,” Owen said,
“As good as he is, and he’s one of the best, he’ll play for Barcelona or Real Madrid one day, in my opinion he’s that good.”
Hargreaves is currently a pundit on BT Sport and even though we do not agree with his full statement but one thing that he got spot on is that every defender – no matter how world class will always want to play for a team which can provide a proper shield infront of him and his defensive partner. And no matter how great the Liverpool side maybe but they just don’t have such great defensive midfielders – when compared to other top Premier League clubs.
So maybe Owen Hargreaves is right.
What do you think?
