Gary Neville named Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in his Team of the Decade alongside ex-Reds attacker Luis Suarez.
The Manchester United legend was asked to create his Premier League Team of the Decade on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football ahead of Aston Villa defeating Newcastle United 2-0.
Jamie Carragher shared his and Neville’s team on his personal Twitter account and both opted to have current Reds first-teamer Van Dijk in their side.
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 25, 2019
OPINION
Isn’t it interesting that Neville has actually named more players with Liverpool connections than Reds legend Carragher after all the only person in Carragher’s team connected to the Merseyside club is Van Dijk. However, Neville has room for Suarez in his side and that shouldn’t be a surprise. While the Uruguayan may no longer be the most popular man at Anfield, as there’s always a little bit of heartbreak when a talented player leaves, he did light up Liverpool’s side when on the club’s books. The forward scored 69 goals in 110 Premier League appearances, averaging an impressive 0.63 goals per match (Source: Premier League), and it says a lot that Neville dubbed Suarez a “phenomenon” who is “absolutely unbelievable” when explaining Suarez’s selection on Sky Sports’ website as that’s extremely strong praise. As for Van Dijk being selected, it’s no surprise. The centre-back wowed last season and has looked solid in his current campaign in order to the help Reds sit top of the league as he has averaged a match rating of 7.26 on WhoScored across his 13 league outings and has averaged a ridiculously good 5.5 clearances per game.
