Leroy Sané suggests £220k-a-week Liverpool player is a brilliant defender

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Leroy Sané picked Virgil van Dijk as part of his ‘ultimate player’ exercise this week. Who else but the Liverpool man for your defence?

Leroy Sané picked his ‘ultimate player’ for 11teamsports this week. They asked him in a video on Instagram to pick players for various traits.

The Germany winger picked one Liverpool player in the exercise – Virgil van Dijk for defending. Not sure there can be many arguments there.

The player came out like this:

Speed: Alphonso Davies
Dribbling: Neymar
Intelligence: Andrés Iniesta
Flair: Ronaldinho
Finishing: Lionel Messi
Defending: Virgil van Dijk
Leadership: Vincent Kompany

A decent player, then – we’re not sure how you’d get the ball away from them. Maybe once Messi’s finishing inevitably puts it in the net.

Leroy Sané picks Virgil van Dijk

Despite a sub-par start to this season – and a year out of the game – Van Dijk still commands respect as the world’s best defender. Trent Alexander-Arnold labelled him ‘the most talented’ he’s ever played with just this week.

Fabio Capello and Arrigo Sacchi both picked him in World XIs this season, too, while Erling Haaland was raving about him in the summer.

Van Dijk hasn’t exactly found his top form this season, so it is nice to see. He’s been a little off the pace, made more mistakes than you’d usually see and just hasn’t felt quite as solid. Of course, a big part of that is Liverpool failing to meet their standards as a whole.

But quite clearly, the £220k-a-week man is still viewed as the world’s best defender by most. He’s still the best in our eyes, certainly, and there isn’t anyone you’d swap him for. No one you’d really consider, in fact.

Hopefully, Liverpool recapture their form after the World Cup and Van Dijk gets back to his best. Because when he’s at that level, he’s unquestionably the best on the planet.