Cantona helped the Red Devils end their title drought in 1993 and Ince, who played for both clubs, thinks Van Dijk can do likewise for Liverpool.
Manchester United legend Paul Ince has claimed that Virgil van Dijk can be Liverpool’s very own Eric Cantona as the Merseysiders seek to put 29 years of top-flight title hurt behind them.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are top of the Premier League table, four points clear of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur with 14 games to go, and the Dutch defender has certainly helped shore up their defence since his arrival a year ago.
Back in 1992, United were in a similar predicament, their last league title having come in 1967, but their acquisition of French forward Eric Cantona from Leeds United has widely been deemed their catalyst for ending their own league drought.
Ince, who won two league titles with the Old Trafford outfit before spending two seasons at Anfield in the 1990s, says Van Dijk’s influence on Liverpool is similar to the one Cantona had at United.
Ince told The Times: “When we brought Eric Cantona in, it was the final piece of the jigsaw. When he came into the changing room for the first time, he was a big man, a big presence of a man, and his attitude matched our attitude. He had a will to win titles, he wanted to be successful.
“Are we talking about the same thing with Virgil van Dijk? Is he the one? The goalkeeper [Alisson] has come in and done well but I look at Van Dijk and think he has made the rest of the players around him better. Liverpool have that presence about them. That presence that we had.”
Given Ince played alongside Cantona and, with him, was part of the Man United team which won their first title in 26 years, his comments are bound to excite Liverpool fans, given he senses the same traits in Van Dijk as he did with the enigmatic Frenchman – and perhaps yield the same outcome.
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