BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has heaped praise on Liverpool’s centre back pairing of Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk.
The pair were imperious in the Reds’ 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, and both players made Crooks’s team of the week.
“The tackle by Joe Gomez on Lucas Moura in the second half of Liverpool’s win at Tottenham would have stopped a mail train,” Crooks wrote on the BBC Sport website. “I said two weeks ago, after Liverpool’s impressive victory at Leicester, that this kid was the best defender I’ve seen in years.”
Crooks also had positive words to say about Van Dijk: “Harry Kane never had a kick. Virgil van Dijk was too big, too strong and too composed on the ball. Instead, Van Dijk walked on to the pitch looking like a film star and walked off with the Oscar for best leading man,” he said.
OPINION
Gomez and Van Dijk made the England captain look like a mere schoolboy on Saturday. Kane is arguably the greatest centre forward in world football, but he couldn’t get going against the Liverpool defensive duo. It makes such a difference for Jurgen Klopp to have defenders he can rely on, as the backline was always the achilles heel of previous Reds teams under the German. Van Dijk’s arrival from Southampton is the obvious reason for the team’s defensive improvement, but 21-year-old Gomez is proving himself to be one of the best young defenders in Europe. Alongside full backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, the two centre backs are establishing the Liverpool defence as the equal of their vaunted frontline. Crooks has showered the two defenders with high praise, but they deserve it for their performances so far this season. If they can keep up this form then Liverpool will run Manchester City close in the Premier League this term.
