Virgil Van Dijk has undoubtedly been the best player for Liverpool this season. The defender won the Premier League Player of the Year due to his impeccable performance at the heart of the Reds’ backline.
The Dutch defender had joined Liverpool for a record breaking £75 million in January 2018 from Southampton. The Dutchman has since delivered consistently for Jurgen Klopp’s side and is regarded by many as the best defender in the world.
Liverpool conceded just 22 goals in the Premier League this season and the team kept 20 clean sheets. They lost just one game and missed out on winning the title by just a point even after registering 97 points.
A lot of credit goes to Van Dijk who steadied the Liverpool defence which wasn’t known to be miserly.
The Dutch centre-back appeared in all the Premier League this season and managed to make 199 clearances. He has won 244 duels and 181 aerial battles. He also has a 74 per cent tackle success rate.
His statistics in the league is nothing short of intimidating. In Europe too, he has done pretty well. In 11 matches he played he made 47 clearances, eight blocks, recovered 89 balls and made six tackles.
Liverpool have faced some of the best sides of Europe this season like Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona and Van Dijk have remained rock solid against some of the finest attacking players in the world.
The Reds defender is a strong contender for winning the Ballon d’Or this season. If Liverpool manages to win the Champions League on Saturday then the Dutch player can become the first defender to win the prestigious award since Italian legend Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 after leading Italy to the World Cup.
Tottenham Hotspur have a very strong attacking unit and they have pulled off some amazing performance in the Champions League in recent times so if the Merseyside club want to bag their sixth Champions League trophy, Virgil Van Dijk has to be at his very best.
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