Virgil van Dijk has established a reputation as one of the Premier League’s toughest defenders.
Although Colin Kazim-Richards concedes that the Liverpool star’s strength may not be as impressive as first appears, the towering Dutchman is undoubtedly the kind of player you wouldn’t want to engage in a physical confrontation with.
Kazim-Richards said on Filthy Fellas that he doesn’t know how powerful Van Dijk is because no striker will go up against him physically, but if a huge center-forward decided to play up against the 32-year-old, things might be different.
Van Dijk never disputed Kazim-Richards’ assessment of the £75 million defender’s strength.
I’m unsure if he was tough. At PSG, I faced up against him. I haven’t physically encountered anybody where I’ve thought, “Ah.” I’ll give Lescott credit for being physical. It felt like two walls colliding if you struck him. I’ve never had a game with Virgil. Although nobody plays up against him, I would say that Virgil is enormous, so I don’t know how powerful he is. They don’t play against him, which isn’t to denigrate Virgil, but if you saw strikers line up next to him, it might be a different scenario, according to Kazim-Richards.
Interesting
This viewpoint on Van Dijk and his strength is quite intriguing.
Although the center-half is undoubtedly physically gifted, we have never actually witnessed a striker attempt to intimidate him.
Even some of the Premier League’s most powerful strikers, like Romelu Lukaku and Aleksandar Mitrovic, altered their tactics when facing Van Dijk; perhaps if they had given him a taste of his own medicine, they might have been able to defeat him.
Although Van Dijk is extraordinarily strong, it’s uncommon to see him put to the test, as Kazim-Richards notes.