RIO FERDINAND BELIEVES Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk should not have been awarded Uefa’s Men’s Player of the Season award, as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remain the best talents on the planet.
Van Dijk marshalled the Reds backline throughout a stunning 2018-19 season which saw the club fall just short of a memorable double.
The Merseysiders won their first Champions League title since 2005 with victory over Tottenham in the final, while they were pipped to the Premier League crown by just one point by Manchester City in a two-horse race that went down to the wire.
The Netherlands international’s contribution to that success earned him Thursday’s individual award ahead of the pair who have dominated world football over the last decade, and he will surely be a hot candidate too for the Ballon d’Or later in the year.
But according to former centre-back Ferdinand, recognition of Van Dijk is still somewhat undeserved.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Virgil van Dijk is the best defender on the planet today,” the ex-Manchester United and England man told BT Sport.
"I'm happy for Van Dijk but when someone scores 50, you can't do that!"@rioferdy5 breaks from the centre-back union and believes Van Dijk still falls short of Messi and Ronaldo.#EarlyKickOff pic.twitter.com/vNcEnzqitv
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) August 31, 2019
“But when a man scores 50 goals in a season like Messi did, or Cristiano won three trophies this season, the effect he’s had on a new championship and at national level as well, you can’t look beyond that.
“People say, ‘ah it’s a bit boring that those two are still winning’ but they’re putting up numbers that have never been seen before, for 12, 15 years.
“I’m a centre half and I’m delighted that he’s won it, I think he’s a worthy winner, but when you’ve got a man scoring 50 you can’t do that.”
Ferdinand added that while defending was a crucial part of football, it is not what fans want to see when they file through the turnstiles at the weekend.
“I would not spend my hard-earned cash to come watch a defender,” he stated.
“Entertain me! I want to be taken off my seat, to scream and go, ‘Oh my God, what a performance, what a goal’. The hardest thing to do in the game is to score a goal.”
Van Dijk and Liverpool will begin their defence of the Champions League in Group E, where they were drawn alongside Napoli, Salzburg and Genk on Thursday in Monaco.
But they are also looking to preserve their status as the only team to start the Premier League with a 100 per cent record after three games, with the next test away to Burnley on Saturday.
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Sour grapes from Cheika. The knee on Conway was by far the worst incident in the game. Australians are always terrible losers though.
@Jim Demps: so are we to be fair
@domas1507: disagree! By international standards (us, English, Australia) we’re not too bad. Honest about how shite we are when we are if anything
@Jim Demps: Entirely agree… have seen this kind of cynical ‘tackle attempt’ a few times now and it’s clearly not intended to stop the score, but to injure the scorer.
These need to be picked up and sin-binned.
@domas1507: you definitely get off on self flagellation.
@Bruce Van der Gutschmitzer: wrong comment, wrong place.
@domas1507: I never get this. Everyone last week said Australia deserved to win, that they had our number and out played us. We also had justified complaints about some shoddy refereeing, but it wasn’t sour grapes, it’s just another element of the game you can dissect.
@Conor Paddington: some would say complaining about refereeing decisions after you loose, justified or not, is being a bad looser
@Conor Paddington: that’s nonsense, you can rationally dissect a game and be honest whether your team win or lose, and refereeing is a part of that. The ref was bad last week and that is not why Ireland lost amd Australia deserved to win. That is not sour grapes.
@Conor Paddington: I’m not talking about last weeks game exactly. It’s easy be a gracious in defeat when you clearly loose. The sign of a gracious loser is is accepting defeat when you think you should have won. Think ireland v new Zealand in Dublin and a certain French striker for examples of what I mean.
@Jim Demps: the knee? He was legitimately trying to stop a try , he was hardly just going to let him stroll in
@domas1507: @domas1507: well a blatant double handball and determined ignorance of fifa officials is fair enough to critique. Neglecting to give yellows for a knock out shoulder charge and a clothesline would wind you up too. In that case, I’m a sour c¿nt!
@Trevor Reilly: I think he was def trying to injure him… barely laid a hand on him but still dropped the knee into him. Sorry, but for me it was deliberate.
@Bruce Van der Gutschmitzer: don’t be harsh on yourself, you’re just a bad looser
@Jim Demps:
Every country have their whingers and complainers. Australians are no different to ourselves, England, Wales etc.
@domas1507: like true troll resentment feeds me!
@Trevor Reilly: There is nowhere on the field that you are allowed to tackle with the knee. If he was legitimately trying to stop a score why not try to get under the ball with his arms/body?
I like Australia. But they play some highly questionable rugby when it comes to legality. Cheika can do one if he’s going to complain about off-the-ball incidents considering there were a raft of Australian incidents both last and this week.
Cheika can F right off… his players were hitting Irish players off he ball and / or late all evening and getting away with it most of the time!!
Make no mistake. They know that deep down theyll never be able to force Ireland into infringement issues.
I see us getting it done in Sydney. #TeamOfUs
Again some awful referee decision even with TV match officials and touch judges. Hard to understand that they cannot get it right?
I know some will think it’s pedantic but can we stop with this ‘first win in Australia in 39 years’ business it’s not. It’s Ireland’s first away win against Australia. I saw Ireland win in Adelaide 15 years ago.
@Ted Od: first away win against Australia sorry in 39 years.
@Ted Od: it’s pedantic!
That ref was the Pitts … who let him on a pitch…. he was very 2 sided….well take the win .
@Sean Beirne: Two sided? Maybe one side too many? Or not…
Bloody whinging Aussies ( said in an Alf Stewart voice )
It was a shocking challenge
…definitely should be cited