Former Manchester United captain and centre back Rio Ferdinand has stated that Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk is not a better defender than his former centre back partner, Nemanja Vidic.
Ferdinand and Vidic formed a formidable partnership at the back for Manchester United between 2006 and 2014, winning a horde of titles along the way.
Vidic would go one better than Ferdinand, who became the club’s captain at some point in their playing time together, by winning two Premier League player of the season awards. The Serbian is one of only four players to achieve this feat, with the other three being Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.
Vidic, who spent the last two years of his career at Inter Milan, has been the benchmark for what a brilliant centre back is among defenders playing in England. The latest comparisons have seen fans and the media compare Liverpool defender Van Dijk to the former Spartak Moscow man.
The discussion has gone on for as long as Van Dijk has been a Liverpool player, thanks to his performances coinciding with Liverpool’s amazing run in the English top flight.
The Reds are currently in a bad spot at the moment and the Netherlands international has been singled out as one of the reasons for their decline. Those in favour of Vidic being the better defender have had a field day with their comments on the matter, until the Serbian’s own partner, Ferdinand, stepped in.
Commenting on Jamie Carragher’s claims that Van Dijk, like Vidic, had some struggles especially against Fernando Torres whom Carragher played with, Ferdinand said: “Liverpool’s defending… I don’t know what I’m seeing at the moment! I can’t get my head around it.
“Van Dijk has been the best defender in the world arguably for the last couple of years. He looks a shadow of himself.
“He’s lost form, obviously. He said that in a [social media] post after the game that personally and collectively [Liverpool] have lost form, not playing the way they normally would. And that’s fine, that’s fair.
“Him, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] they’ve just got to get back to basics. The way you get out of a rut like that is to just get back to basics.
“I saw Jamie Carragher tweet something about Van Dijk being better than Vidic. I don’t know why, or why that was said or whatever.
“He mentioned [Fernando] Torres – I think Torres scored three goals in 15 games against Vidic. I think it’s a bit of a myth. I think he had a couple of dodgy moments in those games, and he got sent off a couple of times, but that’s kind of been amplified into saying he got tortured every time we played against Torres, which wasn’t the case.
“Three goals in 15 games. [Marcus] Rashford I think has got six in 13 games against Liverpool, does that mean he’s tortured Van Dijk and Van Dijk can’t handle him? Because that’s what you’re saying about [Vidic], if we’re using the same methodology that we’re using for Vidic with the way Rashford is scoring goals against Liverpool, just under one every two games he’s scoring against Liverpool. I don’t know.
“I don’t know why Vidic’s name was thrown in there. People are hammering Virgil van Dijk about his performances this season, he’s had a bit of an off season – which he has, and I think he’d admit that.
“It’s mad. He’s prime time as well. The problem is he had a big injury, and that injury was one where people said, “Can he come back from that injury?” Next season is going to be the telling one. He’s had this season to get himself fit, to get himself up to speed.”
