Virgil van Dijk was recently crowned the PFA Players’ Player of The Year, and deservedly so. The 27-year-old centre back has more than justified his 75 million pound price tag since his move to Anfield in January 2018, cementing his place in Jurgen Klopp’s elite squad and the hearts of the Liverpool faithful.
One of the best footballers in the world currently, Van Dijk is an intelligent, tough-tackling defender with excellent physicality and tactical awareness, who is capable of playing the ball out from the back and leading a tight defence, capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the best attackers in the game right now.
He has showed his quality time and again in crucial matches, and his dedication and commitment has been rewarded in the form of recognition by his peers, analysts and football fans worldwide, culminating in the aforementioned award.
Defenders, admittedly, have garnered lesser admiration than their attacking counterparts because of the general bias towards flair and guile. But that would mean reducing the beautiful game to just goals, ignoring the fact that football is a team game.
The fact that most individual award-winners in football have been attackers and midfielders is sufficient evidence to the fact that protecting the goal is a task that is often overlooked.
Nike releases epic poster to celebrate Virgil van Dijk’s POTY award
Nike have released an epic poster on their Instagram celebrating the Dutchman’s Player Of The Year award, with an image of van Dijk alongside the words “The best defender in the league”, the word ‘defender’ having been struck through.
A class act by the American giant, giving the Anfield support the slogan they have associated the phenomenal defender with.
Liverpool are currently sitting second in the Premier League table, a point away from leaders Manchester City. Having won their last five games, Jurgen Klopp’s side are hoping to gain another favourable result in their title push when they travel to Newcastle on Sunday.