Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp has named Reds defender Virgil van Dijk as his Player of the Season so far.
The Dutchman has been the most vital component in a Liverpool defence which has conceded a Premier League-low 14 goals this campaign, and Redknapp has been seriously impressed by him.
“No one comes close to Virgil van Dijk. He has transformed Liverpool into a rock-solid team who are favourites to win their first league title for 29 years,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“His team-mate and reigning player of the year Mo Salah must fancy his chances of defending the crown. He has followed up a record-breaking first season at Anfield by topping the scoring charts with 16 goals.”
OPINION
Redknapp also included Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Manchester City’s David Silva in his top six for the Player of the Season prize. From that list you can probably discount Aubameyang considering the Gunners’ stop-start campaign, while Kane is hampered by his current spell out with injury. Hazard will likely be the only interloper challenging the top two sides’ representatives for this award. Surely people like Alisson, Bernardo Silva and Fernandinho also have to be considered, though – maybe even Andrew Robertson. However, it appears that this prize resides in one man’s hands at this moment in time, and that’s Van Dijk. He has been utterly superb for a sensational Liverpool team. The former Southampton man has been head and shoulders above anyone else in the Premier League this term and, title or not, should be recognised with the award at season’s end.
