Wilfried Zaha has raved about Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk on the Greatest Game podcast, saying that the central defender has ‘everything’.
Zaha is one of the trickiest attackers to come up against in the Premier League, but the Crystal Palace man even questions how he can get past Liverpool’s sturdiest defender.
Zaha even suggests that Van Dijk can ‘muck around’ on the pitch and tempt strikers into trying to challenge him, because he is so talented.
“He’s fast, calm, strong. He’s got everything,” the Ivorian international said.
“Obviously Rio [Ferdinand] was just composed to the next level, but I feel like Virgil has everything down to a tee. Like to the point where he can muck about when a ball comes over the top and flick it around the striker and stuff and he’s fast enough to get back on to it.
“I don’t look into defender’s games as much as when I play against him.
“When we play against Liverpool it’s like, how am I going to get around this guy?”
Zaha’s comments just highlight how big a miss Van Dijk has been for Liverpool this season.
The 28-year-old is set to miss the entire campaign with a knee injury which he picked up in the Merseyside derby.
The absence of Van Dijk has been compounded, as Joe Gomez has also been ruled out for the season.
Liverpool are now seriously short of options at the back, but Klopp has continuously insisted that any central defensive signing is unlikely to happen this month.
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