Virgil van Dijk is on his own level, and has been, for a longer time than you think.

A thread:

-Now, it’s common knowledge Van Dijk is the best Centre back in the world right now, and has been for a couple of years.

-I will go into that and use some advanced metrics to compare him to the other top current CB’s.

-The main point of this thread is to show JUST how good VVD is, how elite his prime season was, and how long he’s been at the top.

-To show how, in a way, he’s underrated.

-You’ll be surprised, so make sure to read the whole thread.

-So to start, let’s see what makes him the worlds best CB, let’s look at his numbers and compare him to some of the current top CB’s.

-I’ll compare him with the following players, using numbers from the 17/18 season to now, a good time range to judge the current best:

-Ramos
-Varane
-Koulibaly
-Maguire
-Gomez
-Skriniar
-De Ligt
-Upamecano

-The top performing CB’s of the last few years, I’ll compare VVD to the best CB’s of the decade later on.

-Before we start, i’ll say it again, it’s more difficult to judge defenders by using raw stats.

-Raw stats like “most interceptions, most tackles etc” are indicative of play style and how often the team is on the ball.