Virgil van Dijk will lead Liverpool out at Wembley on Sunday afternoon hoping to win a third Carabao Cup in four years in what could be his final appearance under the iconic arch for the Reds.
The 33-year-old is in the final weeks of his contract at Anfield and should he repeat his man of the match performance from last year’s final, Liverpool will likely have a first trophy of the Arne Slot era.
A second would then be set to follow, given their commanding lead at the top of the Premier League ahead of the run-in.
Ruddock hails Van Dijk experience
While Reds fans await any news on their skipper’s future, the other debate concerning the Dutchman has been just how high he ranks on the list of the greatest Premier League defenders of all-time (here at FourFourTwo, we ranked him at No.3 all-time in our list last summer)
“Well, there’s one or two that have been better than him…” former Reds centre-back Neil Ruddock mischievously suggests to FourFourTwo. “If he’d had my left foot, he’d have been a better player, put it that way!”
Van Dijk – still valued at €28million by Transfermarkt – will turn 34 in the summer, by which time he should have clocked up a 300th Premier League start from his ten-year stint with Southampton and then Liverpool, with Ruddock insisting that the Netherlands international is getting better all the time.
“Centre-half is a position where the more experienced you are, the better you get,” he adds. “It’s not only the way Van Dijk has been playing, but the way he leads, the information he gives to his team-mates.
“They lost Jordan Henderson, who was always unbelievable with his information, but Van Dijk has stepped into his shoes.”
Ruddock also notes that the challenge of coming back from his 2020 ACL injury, that he suffered after a challenge with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, should not be underestimated.
“It’s been about confidence for him, too – he had a terrible injury that he had to come back from, and it was about confidence in the knee. Was it going to go again? To get back to the player he is now has been amazing.”
Van Dijk has played every single minute of Liverpool’s Premier League campaign so far and if he is to lead the club to victory against Newcastle United on Sunday, it will be his sixth major honour with the club.
