After signing a new contract at Liverpool, Alex Keble looks at whether Virgil van Dijk is the greatest central defender in Premier League history and how he compares with other top-flight legends.
Van Dijk has been just as important to Liverpool as Mohamed Salah over the last eight years.
The Liverpool captain signed a new contract just a few days after the Egyptian put pen to paper on a new deal.
He is the beating heart of Arne Slot’s team; the player most responsible for the rock-solid foundation upon which the Liverpool attackers build.
In fact, on the verge of collecting his second league title and first as club captain, Van Dijk might even be the greatest centre-back in Premier League history.
To make the case we first need to come up with a shortlist.
There have been so many great defenders - the likes of Ricardo Carvalho, Jaap Stam and Paul McGrath - but Van Dijk’s competition to be my best ever is as follows: John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Vincent Kompany, Sol Campbell, Tony Adams and Nemanja Vidic.
Silverware doesn’t stack up (yet), but win percentage does
Van Dijk has won just one Premier League title so far as a Liverpool player (although there is an element of misfortune here, having played in a team that finished runners-up with 97 points and 92 points), as well as one FA Cup, two EFL Cups, and one UEFA Champions League.
This puts him at the lower end of the scale. Campbell and Adams were part of iconic Arsenal teams that won multiple titles and defined an era, as were Ferdinand and Vidic at Man Utd, Terry at Chelsea and Kompany at Manchester City.
Of course, in the fullness of time Van Dijk will have iconic status for how he defined Liverpool at their peaks under Jurgen Klopp (and, most likely, Slot), with a second league title soon to follow.
But will Liverpool’s time in the spotlight be defined by Van Dijk to quite the same extent as others on the shortlist? Terry was instrumental to Jose Mourinho’s record-breaking defence, while Kompany and Adams scored vital and iconic goals during title run-ins.
Here, as with the silverware record, Van Dijk falls down.
Most trophies won by selected centre-backs
| Player | PL titles | UCL titles | FA Cups | EFL Cups | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terry | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 14 |
| Kompany | 4 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| Ferdinand | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Vidic | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Adams | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Campbell | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| Van Dijk | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
But if we look beyond trophy count, Van Dijk is competitive on a number of statistical measures, most notably sitting third for points-per-game and win percentage, reflecting those incredible (but not title-winning) seasons when Liverpool were pipped by Man City.
How the defenders compare
| Terry | Ferdinand | Kompany | Campbell | |
| Matches | 492 | 504 | 265 | 503 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean sheets | 214 | 189 | 94 | 153 |
| Matches won | 311 | 291 | 167 | 212 |
| Clean sheet % | 45.2% | 38.4% | 37.2% | 31.4% |
| Goals con. per 90 | 0.81 | 0.98 | 0.88 | 1.12 |
| Win % | 63.2% | 57.7% | 63.0% | 42.1% |
| Points per game | 2.11 | 1.95 | 2.08 | 1.54 |
| Adams | Vidic | Van Dijk | |
| Matches | 255 | 211 | 295 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean sheets | 115 | 95 | 115 |
| Matches won | 132 | 149 | 186 |
| Clean sheet % | 45.6% | 46.3% | 39.0% |
| Goals con. per 90 | 0.76 | 0.72 | 0.96 |
| Win % | 51.8% | 70.6% | 63.1% |
| Points per game | 1.82 | 2.28 | 2.10 |
*Leader highlighted in green
These statistics leave Vidic as the leader in half of the categories, although Terry – who also won the most major silverware – leads on two categories and comes in second on a further two.
When you add in Terry’s part in Chelsea’s still-record 2004/05, when they conceded just 15 Premier League goals, he emerges as top of the pile… for now.
Van Dijk's aerial and technical ability are standout features
The raw data on what these classic Premier League centre-backs achieved isn’t the whole picture, of course.
Every player on the shortlist had unique qualities.
Ferdinand was a revolutionary defender who changed how English football saw the centre-back, ushering in the era of unflappable ball-playing defenders who didn’t need to get caked in mud to dominate a game.
Vidic was the yin to Ferdinand’s yang, a highly aggressive front-foot defender who went searching for a tackle.
Terry was the driving force for Mourinho, a warrior footballer who didn’t take any prisoners.
Campbell was an imposing figure who was never bullied in a challenge, but also a more composed and technically gifted player than he was given credit for.
Adams was an old-school leader at the back, brilliant in the air and the chief organiser of Arsene Wenger’s first title-winning side.
Kompany was charismatic in the dressing room while aggressive on the pitch, a throwback who neatly counter-balanced Pep Guardiola’s technical progressions.
Van Dijk will be remembered as a hybrid of all of these traits: surely the best ever in the air; a leader like Kompany; a graceful passer and stand-up defender like Ferdinand; and intimidating when he needed to be, like Terry.
Opta data doesn’t go far back enough to compare Van Dijk’s stats to the others on this list, Kompany aside, but still his numbers help illustrate the Liverpool defender’s best qualities.
Since 2006/07, when Opta records began, Van Dijk has won 74.9 per cent of his aerial duels, the highest among outfield players to have been involved in more than 50 duels.
He is also first among centre-backs for interceptions (433), second among centre-backs for duels won (1,716), and second for clearances (1,472).
Pundits - and fellow centre-backs - see Van Dijk as the best
But football isn’t a numbers game, and we shouldn’t get too bogged down in counting up trophies or reading spreadsheets.
Perhaps the most important factor is simply how a player makes us feel, and Van Dijk has plenty of high-profile admirers who put him forward as the best.
“Please stop this silly debate about the best centre-back, it's not even close,” former Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher said on X in December 2024, calling Van Dijk “the best centre-back we've ever seen in the Premier League.”
“I think he's the best centre-half of all time,” was former striker Michael Owen’s assessment on TNT Sport in May 2024.
“He's bigger than everyone, he's faster than everyone, he's stronger than everyone, he's brilliant on the ball, he scores goals. I've never seen anything like it.”
And if you think this is just ex-Liverpool player bias, then how about this, from a fellow candidate and contemporary no less.
“I would choose Virgil van Dijk as the best defender in Premier League history,” Kompany told Sporf back in May 2020.
“It is a strange choice, because he is not in the scene as long as boys like Terry and Ferdinand. Those boys have played in the league for a very long time.
“But the signals that Van Dijk gives in his last few seasons make it so clear that if he had gone to the absolute top before, he would be even further.”
More to come
That’s an interesting point. Van Dijk didn’t move to Liverpool until he was 26.
Had he been given the chance at a top club four or five years earlier perhaps he would have a few more trophies to his name, putting him closer to arguably the only other standout candidate from our analysis, Terry.
Those trophies could still come. Another two years at Anfield means another couple of shots at Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League success.
Slot’s debut season points to plenty more silverware on the horizon for Van Dijk.
Should that happen, there won’t be any doubt about who is my greatest defender in Premier League history.