Virgil Van Dijk has confirmed his status as the world's best defender since joining Liverpool, according to Leicester City manager Claude Puel.
Puel managed Van Dijk during his year-long spell in charge of Southampton during the 2016-17 campaign and felt then that the centre-back was among the best, although a little rough around the edges.
The Holland international has been pivotal to Liverpool's Premier League title challenge, with the Reds top of the Premier League having conceded just 13 goals in 23 games so far.
Puel, who will come up against his former player when Leicester face Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night, believes playing in a top team has unlocked Van Dijk's full potential.
"When I came in at Southampton he was, of course, a good player and I said at the time that for me he was the best defender in the world, but he was in comfort and had habits," said Puel.
"He liked to defend deep on the pitch at the beginning and it was a shame he sometimes played too easy.
"At the beginning it was a little difficult to discuss with him and to change and evaluate, he got angry. But step by step he corrected things and improved his movement, cover and defending with cover and without risk.
"We know all the great teams like to have possession to play high up the pitch. The defenders need to learn to defend with a lot of space behind them. To play in great teams this is the aspect they need and he is now a modern defender at a very high level.
"At Liverpool, he has took another dimension. He is a fantastic player. My feeling about him doesn't change with Liverpool. He is strong, powerful, fast, technical, he can play under pressure without a problem. It is fantastic.
"At Southampton he was the best defender in the world, but he confirmed it I think with Liverpool."
Puel feels he may have another world-class defender under his charge in the shape of Harry Maguire.
The 25-year-old was reportedly the subject of interest from Manchester United during the last transfer window after impressing for England at the World Cup in Russia.
"I hope Harry can follow the same way," said Puel. "Harry has also different attributes but a lot of aspects in his play to become a fantastic defender. He is a very good defender and can become one of the best in the world if he continues to improve."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel