22-year-old raves about Virgil van Dijk, after claims Liverpool almost signed him this summer

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Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has praised Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk ahead of meeting him tomorrow.

The Reds are heading to London to take on Spurs in what looks set to be a great game in the Premier League.

It’ll be the first time Van de Ven comes up against Liverpool, after reports that he almost signed for the Reds before joining Spurs this summer. And in quotes from The Mirror, the 22-year-old claimed he was not nervous about tomorrow’s game.

“We are going to play our own way and play like we want to play. We don’t have fear for Liverpool,” he said.

However, it seems as though there is at least one player in the Reds squad that has caught Van de Ven’s attention.

“I think Virgil [Van Dijk] was the last couple of years and this year also one of the best defenders in the Premier League, for sure,” he said.

“The year they grabbed the title he was unbelievable and showed how important he is for Liverpool. He shows how important he is the last couple of years.”

Van de Ven hails Van Dijk

If things had been different, perhaps Van de Ven could have been lining up alongside his countryman for tomorrow’s game.

In the early part of the summer window, the Netherlands U21 international was said to be high on Liverpool’s list of centre-back targets.

Ultimately though, it seemed as though the eventual £43m Spurs could end up paying for Van de Ven was too rich for the Reds.

Their refusal to stump up the cash Wolfsburg were asking for could well come back to bite them. The Tottenham man has had a good start to life in England, and is only going to get better.

But no matter how much he progresses, there’s no way that Van de Ven will ever get to Virgil’s level.

Even in his more disappointing days last season, the Liverpool captain was still one of the best defenders in the world. Now that he’s looking somewhere close to his best again, he’s easily up there.

Hopefully our Dutch centre-half is the one who comes out on top in North London tomorrow.