Jamie Redknapp has hailed Virgil van Dijk as the outstanding candidate to win the Premier League’s player of the year gong.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the high profile pundit claimed “no one comes close” to the Holland international who has laid the foundations for Liverpool’s strong title challenge.
“No one comes close to Virgil van Dijk. He has transformed Liverpool into a rock-solid team who are favourites to win their first league title for 29 years,” Redknapp told the Mail.
“His team-mate and reigning player of the year Mo Salah must fancy his chances of defending the crown. He has followed up a record-breaking first season at Anfield by topping the scoring charts with 16 goals.”
The other four players who join the Liverpool duo in Redknapp’s shortlist are Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Manchester City’s David Silva.
OPINION
As Redknapp asserts, it is impossible to look beyond Van Dijk. So far. It should be pointed out that we are not yet two-thirds of the way through the season, and there are plenty of hurdles for Van Dijk, and Liverpool, to climb before open-top bus rides can start to be scheduled, starting with tonight’s tricky trip to hit-and-miss West Ham. That said, the centre-back has comfortably been the consistently best player in the Premier League this season. Barring the penalty he gave away against Manchester City and the slight positioning error versus Leicester City last week, Van Dijk has barely put a foot wrong. He has been in total command, against the quickest strikers, the most physical ones and those with the best movement. He is brilliant on the ball, too. If you could build a centre-back from scratch, he would look and play like the titan at the heart of the best defence in the league.