Jamie Carragher believes Aymeric Laporte is the closest centre-back in the Premier League to Virgil van Dijk.
Van Dijk has had a huge effect on Liverpool’s defence since moving to the club from Southampton in January, plugging the gaps that were causing much frustration to Jurgen Klopp.
How close is Laporte to Van Dijk? Five key things to know…
- Van Dijk (£75m) and Laporte (£57m) are the two most expensive defenders in world football.
- Van Dijk helped Liverpool to the 2018 Champions League final, losing 3-1 to Real Madrid in May.
- Laporte hasn’t lost a Premier League game with Manchester City so far.
- Van Dijk has won 131 aerial duels since January 1, 2018, compared to Laporte’s 53, but the Frenchman wins 155-133 on recoveries made in that time.
- Jamie Carragher believes Laporte is Van Dijk’s closest Premier League rival.
And former Liverpool defender Carragher rates Van Dijk as one of the best players in the Premier League, also naming Manchester City’s Aymeric Laporte as the next-best central defender in the division.
The 40-year-old told TalkSport: “I think he’s brilliant. I think he’s the best centre-back in the Premier League and I also think Aymeric Laporte at Man City has been brilliant since he came in.
“Forget his actual position; when you think of maybe the best top ten players you think of Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, David De Gea and Eden Hazard as well.
“I think Van Dijk is actually in that group of players. He’s so good in his position that I think, at this moment in time, he’s up there with the best names in the world.”
(Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
Carragher went on to say that the only reason Van Dijk is not always considered to be the best defender in the world is because of his lack of major honours so far.
He added: “In that position, I always believe if you get rated that highly, you’ve got to back it up with trophies. He got to a Champions League final but you think of the centre-backs who’ve played for Barcelona and Real Madrid over the years. There’s Champions League wins, there’s also some World Cup winners there.
“I think you need a few medals to be able to say that, but at the moment, is there a centre-back in the world playing better than Virgil van Dijk is doing now? If there is one, I haven’t seen him.”
Laporte’s unbeaten start to life at Man City
Manchester City’s Aymeric Laporte
Aymeric Laporte has enjoyed an incredible start to life in English football, picking up a Premier League winner’s medal at the end of last season.
And even more impressively, the Frenchman is yet to be on the losing side in any of his 22 Premier League appearances so far, winning 20 and drawing two.
The former Athletic Bilbao man is one of just 10 players to hit the 20-game mark in that particular respect and could extend that record to 23 games when the Citizens face Bournemouth at the Etihad on Saturday.
The post Carragher picks out Virgil van Dijk’s closest centre-back rival in the Premier League appeared first on Squawka News.
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