Liverpool’s giant problem FIXED with new Van Dijk contract | OneFootball

“Liverpool took an amazing player. [Virgil] Van Dijk is an exceptional central defender. That's a price we'll see (again) in the future. If he plays six or seven years at a high level it would be cheap.”

It is not often I agree with Pep Guardiola but the Manchester City boss had the right idea when asked about Liverpool’s £75million purchase of Virgil van Dijk back in 2017.

While everyone was losing their heads over the fee, then a world record for a centre-back, the one-time Barcelona boss could see the potential.

Van Dijk is now into his seventh full season as a Liverpool player. People stopped talking about the transfer fee not long after he arrived on Merseyside. It is hard to mock a price tag when the player is putting in almost flawless performances every single time he sets foot on the pitch.

His arrival coincided with Liverpool reaching successive Champions League finals. He was then part of a formidable defensive duo alongside Joe Gomez as the Reds won their first title in three decades.

Jurgen Klopp’s side regularly had the best defensive numbers in the English top-flight as they racked up 90+ points across three seasons. Van Dijk was key to that. You could go as far as saying he was the reason the 2019/20 Premier League champions could play in such a way. The high defensive line only worked because the Dutchman had the speed to match most attackers and the physicality to bully everyone. He was a colossus in the air and this allowed the Reds to pin their opponents back. They had no escape route. No matter who he was paired with in defence, Liverpool, for the most part, were formidable.

He raised Dejan Lovren’s level, and it is no surprise that every other one of his partners has looked like the second-best defender in the league when paired with the No.4. Gomez looked unbelievable, Joel Matip, a free transfer from Schalke, was regarded as one of the best centre-backs in Europe during his run with van Dijk and now the same can be said for Ibrahima Konate.