Virgil van Dijk will lead Liverpool out at Wembley on Sunday afternoon hoping to win a 3rd Carabao Cup in 4 years in what might be his closing look beneath the long-lasting arch for the Reds.
The 33-year-old is within the closing weeks of his contract at Anfield and may he repeat his man of the match efficiency from final 12 months’s closing, Liverpool will possible have a primary trophy of the Arne Slot period.
A second would then be set to comply with, given their commanding lead on the prime of the Premier League forward of the run-in.
Ruddock hails Van Dijk expertise
Virgil van Dijk scored his crew’s fourth aim throughout their Carabao Cup Semi Closing Second Leg match vs Tottenham (Picture credit score: Carl Recine/Getty Pictures)
Whereas Reds followers await any information on their skipper’s future, the opposite debate regarding the Dutchman has been simply how excessive he ranks on the checklist of the best Premier League defenders of all-time (right here at FourFourTwo , we ranked him at No.3 all-time in our checklist final summer time
“Effectively, there’s one or two which have been higher than him…” former Reds centre-back Neil Ruddock mischievously suggests to FourFourTwo . “If he’d had my left foot, he’d have been a greater participant, put it that approach!”
Neil Ruddock throughout his Liverpool days within the mid 90s (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Van Dijk – nonetheless valued at €28million by Transfermarkt – will flip 34 in the summertime, by which period he ought to have clocked up a three hundredth Premier League begin from his ten-year stint with Southampton after which Liverpool, with Ruddock insisting that the Netherlands worldwide is getting higher on a regular basis.
“Centre-half is a place the place the extra skilled you’re, the higher you get,” he provides. “It’s not solely the way in which Van Dijk has been taking part in, however the way in which he leads, the data he provides to his team-mates.
“They misplaced Jordan Henderson, who was all the time unbelievable along with his info, however Van Dijk has stepped into his footwear.”
Ruddock additionally notes that the problem of getting back from his 2020 ACL damage, that he suffered after a problem with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, shouldn’t be underestimated.
Van Dijk shall be hoping to win one other Carabao Cup medal this weekend (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
“It’s been about confidence for him, too – he had a horrible damage that he needed to come again from, and it was about confidence within the knee. Was it going to go once more? To get again to the participant he’s now has been wonderful.”
Van Dijk has performed each single minute of Liverpool’s Premier League marketing campaign thus far and if he’s to steer the membership to victory towards Newcastle United on Sunday, will probably be his sixth main honour with the membership.
