Virgil van Dijk is having another stellar season at Liverpool.
The Dutchman has played every minute of the Reds’ Premier League campaign so far, helping his side open a 13-point gap to second-place Arsenal after a comfortable win against Newcastle on Tuesday night.
He has also been crucial to his side’s progress in other competitions, featuring in all seven of Liverpool’s Champions League victories and in both legs of their semi-final win against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.
It was following the second-leg victory against Spurs that Jamie Carragher made the bold claim on Sky Sports that van Dijk is “too good for the highest level of football.”
Going on to compare the 33-year-old to other Premier League centre-backs past and present, Carragher added that van Dijk is “so far above it it’s a joke. The football is that easy for him.”
While Carragher’s comments are somewhat hyperbolic, van Dijk is among the Premier League’s best in his position. That said, several other top-class central defenders are up there alongside him.
With that, here are the top 10 centre-backs to have ever played in the Premier League.
10. Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur)
A case of what could have been.
Ledley King is one of the best players Tottenham have ever produced. Comfortable on the ball with an excellent capacity to read the game, the former England international started out as a midfielder as he progressed through Spurs’ youth ranks and into the first team.
Later moved back into the heart of defence, a series of major knee injuries curtailed King’s career. Towards the end of his playing days, King was picking and choosing which games he would play, missing easier fixtures to ensure he was recovered as best as possible for the most important matchdays.
Still, after 268 appearances in the Premier League and captaining Tottenham to League Cup glory in 2008, the club’s most recent major trophy to date, King merits a place on this list.
9. Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
After winning the Champions League with Porto in 2004, Ricardo Carvalho followed manager Jose Mourinho to West London.
The Portuguese defender made an instant impact, playing 25 times for Chelsea during the 2004/05 season as the Blues went on to win the Premier League title for the first time.
Developing a resolute partnership with fellow centre-half John Terry, Carvalho played a crucial role as Chelsea only conceded 15 goals throughout the entire 38-game campaign, a Premier League record that has yet to be broken.
Considering the next best defences in Premier League history conceded 22 goals across a season (Chelsea in 2005/06, Manchester United in 2007/08, and Liverpool in 2018/19), it could be a record that stands the test of time.
Carvalho featured another 24 times for Chelsea as they retained their crown in the 2005/06 season, before picking up another winner’s medal in 2009/10, his final season at Stamford Bridge before departing for Real Madrid.
8. Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)
When Manchester City needed Vincent Kompany most, he stepped up. Crucial goals in title run-ins against Manchester United and Leicester City in 2011/12 and 2018/19, respectively, means the former City captain will go down in Premier League folklore.
Quick, strong and great in the air, Kompany was a supreme defender, as reflected by the four titles he won with three different managers at the Etihad. Another former holding midfielder, he was also exceptional with the ball at his feet, able to adapt to Pep Guardiola’s demands after the Spaniard replaced Manuel Pellegrini for the 2016/17 season.
7. Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)
An absolute warrior, Nemanja Vidic was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in January 2006.
While he endured a difficult first few months at Old Trafford, after adjusting to life in England, Vidic formed a formidable partnership with Rio Ferdinand, best exemplified by the five Premier League titles and one Champions League crown they won between 2006 and 2013.
An ever-present during the 2008/09 season, the Serbian played a crucial role as Manchester United set a Premier League and British record of 14 consecutive clean sheets, and 1,311 minutes without conceding, between November 2008 and February 2009.
6. Sol Campbell (Tottenham, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Newcastle)
Sol Campbell was already a top centre-half before he made the switch from Tottenham to bitter rivals Arsenal in the summer of 2001.
The 50-year-old helped take the Gunners to new levels, featuring 31 times in the league in his debut campaign as Arsenal ended three years of dominance by Manchester United to reclaim the title as part of a Premier League and FA Cup double.
The only Invincible on this list, the former England international then helped Arsenal go one better in 2003/04, becoming the first, and still, the only, English side since Preston North End in the 19th century to go an entire League campaign unbeaten on route to a second winner’s medal.
That season was part of a wider 49-games unbeaten, Campbell helping Arsenal set a new English top-flight record that still stands to this day.
After he left Arsenal for Portsmouth in 2006, there was more domestic success to come, Campbell captaining Harry Redknapp’s side to FA Cup glory in 2008.
5. Virgil van Dijk (Southampton and Liverpool)
Alongside Alisson, Virgil van Dijk was the final piece in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool puzzle.
Signed for a then-world record fee for a defender in January 2017, the Dutchman ushered in a period of success on Merseyside, winning one Premier League, one Champions League, one FA Cup and two Carabao Cups under Klopp before the German departed at the end of the 2023/24 season.
The best ball-playing centre-back on this list, van Dijk’s ability to break a press by switching play on either foot is remarkable. His range of passing allows Liverpool to be direct when needed, and it has also led to some remarkable assists, none more so than for Sadio Mane against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the Round of 16 of the 2019 Champions League.
Defensively, his reading of the game and 1v1 defending is also exemplary, as highlighted by the fact he went through the whole of the 2018/19 season without being dribbled past (according to the Premier League).
Now 33, the current Liverpool captain has an excellent chance of winning more silverware at Anfield this season under fellow countryman Arne Slot this season.
4. Jaap Stam (Manchester United)
Three seasons, three Premier League titles.
Signed by Sir Alex Ferguson from PSV ahead of the 1997/98 season, Jaap Stam only made 79 Premier League appearances during his time in Manchester. Incredibly strong and deceptively quick, however, he was an imperious defender, only losing five games out of those 79.
In helping United wrestle the Premier League title back from Arsenal in the 1998/99 season, the same year his side won the Champions League and FA Cup, Stam also helped the club make history as the first English side to win the treble.
Perhaps the greatest credit to the Dutchman is that Ferguson, in his 2015 book Leading, admitted selling him to Lazio in 2001 was ‘premature.’ Considering Stam would go on to win the Coppa Italia with Lazio in 2004 before signing for Italian giants AC Milan later that summer, it seems Ferguson was correct.
3. Tony Adams (Arsenal)
Described on the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast by all-time Premier League top scorer Alan Shearer as the “best centre-half I’ve played against,” Tony Adams is undoubtedly a Premier League great.
Immortalised with his own statue outside the stadium of the club he spent his entire career at, ‘Mr Arsenal’ captained the Gunners to four top-flight titles, including two Premier Leagues, during his time in North London.
As tough as they came, Adams was a central component in Arsenal’s ‘famous back four’ alongside Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn. Developed by George Graham, that English core formed the foundation of Arsene Wenger’s 1997/98 title-winning side.
As tough as they came, Adams was a central component in Arsenal’s ‘famous back four’ alongside Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn. Developed by George Graham, that English core formed the foundation of Arsene Wenger’s 1997/98 title-winning side.
The only criticism of Adams, levied at him by Gary Lineker on BBC Sport, is that he was “not as good a footballer [with the ball at his feet]” as some of the other top centre-halves. However, this undervalues Adams’ ability. Indeed, the former England captain’s weaker foot half-volley against Everton in May 1998, a goal that brought the Premier League to Highbury for the first time, shows he was more than capable.
2. Rio Ferdinand (West Ham, Leeds, Manchester United, QPR)
Described at his peak as a Rolls-Royce of a centre half, Rio Ferdinand could do it all.
Interestingly, Ferdinand initially struggled defensively at West Ham after coming through the club’s academy, admitting on the Stick to Football podcast that all he was “thinking about [was] impressing my mates. That was my mindset. I’d play well if I’d done a bit of skill on the forward.”
It was only after he made the move to Leeds, under the tutelage of legendary Arsenal centre back David O’Leary, that Ferdinand focused more on the defensive side of his game.
This went up another level after he made the move to Old Trafford, with Ferdinand explaining that his mindset “grew into being clean sheets, defend first.”
This shone through as Ferdinand went on to win six League titles, two League Cups and the Champions League during his 12 years at Old Trafford.
Comfortable both in possession and with the physical aspects of the game, Ferdinand is one of the best to have ever done it in England’s top flight.
1. John Terry (Chelsea)
492 Premier League appearances, 214 clean sheets, five Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, one Champions League, and one Europa League. All for his boyhood club.
The most remarkable thing about Terry is his longevity. After making his first team debut for Chelsea at the age of 17, Terry was still playing and lifting trophies for the Blues 19 years later.
More specially, he defied Rafael Benitez’s attempts to limit his playing time in the 2012/13 season, featuring in all 38 games under Jose Mourinho at the age of 34 in Chelsea’s title-winning 2014/15 campaign.
As brave as they came with a superb understanding of the game, Terry’s ability with the ball on either foot was also excellent.
Danny Murphy pointed this out on BBC Sport, saying “Terry used to be the best at, either foot when you’re playing in midfield and you’re looking behind you where the forwards are popping up in those positions or the wide men are coming in, clipping little balls through you, over you, with the left foot or the right foot… he started so much play.”
Murphy, Lineker, Shearer and Ian Wright went on to place Terry in their all-time Premier League XI, and he is at number one in our list.
The post Where Van Dijk ranks in Premier League top 10 centre-backs of all-time after Carragher’s audacious claim - opinion appeared first on HITC.
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