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The controversial claim Vincent Kompany made about Virgil van Dijk in 2019 which John Terry disagreed with

Srinivas Sadhanand

Wed 12 February 2025 12:45, UK Updated Wed 19 February 2025 17:32, UK

Despite being 33, Virgil van Dijk is showing no signs of any potential decline in his game as the Liverpool captain is still playing like he is in the prime years of his career.

Leny Yoro hailed Van Dijk by claiming th🍸at the Dutchman is the best centre-back in the world and based on his remarkable displays this season, it is hard to really disagree with the Manchester United youngster.

Virgil van Dijk remains an extraordinary reader of theℱ game, a sergeant at the back who leads Liverpool’s backline at all times, sensational with the ball at his feet ಌand the gold standard for centre-backs across world football.

Van Dijk has wowed Arne Slot 💙as well and a recipe behind the Merseyside-based club’s domineering presence at the top of the Premier League table has꧑ been them conceding the least number of goals (21) so far.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	23	17	5	1	56	21	35	56
2	ArsenalArsenal	24	14	8	2	49	22	27	50
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	24	14	5	5	40	27	13	47
4	ChelseaChelsea	24	12	7	5	47	31	16	43

Alongside Ibrahima Konate, the former Celtic colossus♎ is one half of🅺 the standout centre-back pairing in the English top-flight.

But from the moment he signed for Liverpool in 2018, Van Dijk had a transformative impact on Liverpool’s once-leaky defence while also emerging as a natural leader of men at Anfield over the years — which makes the Dutchman’s sustained excellence rather unsurprising🌄.

• READ MORE: Michael Dawson says Liverpool star is easily the greatest player in ꦑhis position in Premier League history

Vincent Kompany called Virgil van Dijk the greatest defender in Premier League history

With the Champions League winner instantly looking like the complete package at Merseyside, it was only natural that fans, pundits and fellow professionals 🔯sang his 🐭praises to the hilt.

Others, however were perhaps more reticent to mention Van Dijk’s name amongst the Premier League’s best-ever centre-halves such as John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic due to him not possessing the same level of longevity a𒀰s the aforementioned greats.

However, just a year after Van Dijk signed for Liverpool, Vincent Kompany made the bold claim that he is t🍰he best 🧜centre-back to have ever graced English shores.

Kompany said in September 2019 via HaytersTV: “I go back to players that really impress🐼ed me when I played ♏against them as central defenders and I think I would bring it back too…oh God, wait, hold on, I would bring it back to Virgil van Dijk.”

“It’s a weird one because he hasn’t been on the scene as long as the names we mentioned, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, these guys were there for a long, long 𓆉time but the signs he showed in these last few years just make it so obvious that if he would have been at the top, top level before that, he would have been already further as well.”

“And from what I’ve seen in terms of having an impact on a team and a defender is never about himself, it’s about his communication with other guys and how you make your team more solid. And the Liverpoo𒉰l before Van Dijk and the one after him, it’s a completely different setup and I’ll give him that one because of that.”

Kompany proven right about Van Dijk

While it could be argued that Kompany’s statement was premature at the time, it is hard to really disagree with ♓him when going through Van Dijk’s body of work in a Liverpool shirt.

The Breda-born centre-back has won every trophy under the sun at Liverpool, which is all the more impressive when consideri🎐ng that when he joined Jurg𒈔en Klopp’s side, they were far from the finished article as a team.

However, Van Dijk, who was signed in January instantly helped Klopp lead his side to a Champions League final 𒆙within months of his presence despꦑite star man Philippe Coutinho’s exit in the same month.

The season after, Liverpool attained 97 points in the league and lost the title by just one point to Manchester City and won Europe’s💧 elite competition where the ex-Southampton centre-half won the PFA Playeཧrs’ Player of the Year award.

In the following season, Liverpool won their first league title since 1990, whi🅰ch emphasises the unique impact Van Dijk had on elevating them to unforeseen levels as a club.

The veteran remains as complete as one gets as a defender while arguably not playing with the world-class partners that greats of yeste💖ryear had — with 🦹John Terry honing his craft under Marcel Desailly and perfecting it when partnered with Ricardo Carvalho and Rio Ferdinand playing alongside the legendary Nemanja Vidic.

Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate have been Van Dijk’s primary centre-back partners at Liverpool,🗹 who have been three excellent players but none of them can be viewed as Premier League legends — which pr🌌oves Vincent Kompany right.

John Terry said he’s better than Liverpool star in 2024

But in a post shared by SPORTbible last year where V♒an Dijk and Terry were compared, the Chelsea legend chimed in to state that he is the superior defender.

John Terry responded to the post, commenജting: “Goals… clean sheets… Prems… individual awards…FA cups…shall I keep going? I love V💫VD but…”

Here is a statistical comparison of Van Dijk and Terry’s Premier League careers, as one can determine which of the two titans is indeed the💖 better player.

With Van Dijk s✅pending a number of years at Southampton, his stati𝔍stics certainly do not hold weight when compared to Terry but in terms of his impact on Liverpool and the sheer quality he has produced, it would be fair to claim that the former may have eclipsed the latter.