Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has heaped praise on Liverpool’s centre back pairing of Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk.
The frontman spent three years at Anfield earlier in his career, and is very excited by the partnership developing at the heart of the Reds’ defence.
“They’ve got a big game against Spurs this weekend, which I’m interested to see how it goes, but I do think they can win the Premier League,” he told the Blood Red podcast [8: 23]. “It’s been so long, it’s like, ‘can it happen?’ But they’ve got all the tools to do it.
“I love watching them. They are fantastic going forward, but they now seem to have shored it up at the back. They’ve got a good goalkeeper, I like how Joe Gomez is doing, Virgil van Dijk is class, and the full-backs are fantastic. There’s everything there.”
OPINION
Crouch, like so many people, is clearly very high on this year’s Liverpool team. And with the defence having improved so massively, you can see why, too. They have a world class manager in Jurgen Klopp, and he seems to be improving the players every day on the training ground. Gomez has come on leaps and bounds under the German, and that’s reflected in Crouch’s praise. The Van Dijk signing, while expensive, is now looking like money very well spent for the club. The Netherlands captain improves everyone around him, and Crouch obviously rates him very highly. The transfer business that the team did this summer, securing the goalkeeper position and reinforcing the midfield, was excellent. With the defence looking better as well, this Reds team looks well placed to live up to Crouch’s prediction and really challenge for the Premier League title this season. If they are to do that then Gomez and Van Dijk will have to maintain their phenomenal form.
