Van Dijk vs Varane: Comparing the prime stats of Liverpool and Man Utd stars

Virgil van Dijk is one of the Premier League’s greatest ever centre-backs.

Even amongst his wobblier moments with Liverpool this season, Van Dijk feels as though he’s being inordinately criticised just because his performances aren’t quite hitting the world-class standard that we’ve come to expect from him.

Whether that’s fair or not is for you to decide, but the moral of the story is that Van Dijk will always struggle to replicate the stunning form that he showed across the 2018/19 season.

Whenever we come to write articles on Van Dijk’s prime, it’s the year that we always come back to because it saw the Dutchman win the Champions League, finish second in the Ballon d’Or and go an entire club season without being dribbled past.

Yes, he was world-class the follow campaign too as he lifted the Premier League trophy, but running Lionel Messi so, so close in the Ballon d’Or voting will always stand out as his zenith.

As such, it’s always been the standard that we’ve used for Van Dijk when it comes to comparing him to other iconic centre-backs such as Nemanja Vidic and Sergio Ramos.

Read more: Van Dijk vs Vidic: Whose prime Premier League season was better?

Read more: Virgil van Dijk vs Sergio Ramos: Comparing the prime seasons of Liverpool and PSG stars

After all, such has been the meteoric rise of Van Dijk since his move to Liverpool that it’s only natural that fans have asked the question: is he better than this player and that player?

Love it or loath it, that entire complex has become part of the wider football culture with Messi constantly compared to Cristiano Ronaldo just as Erling Haaland will no doubt always be contrasted against Kylian Mbappe.

But hey, it’s fun to have these conversations if they’re conducted in a