Virgil van Dijk - Is The Reds’ New Captain Back to His Best?

Deep dive on his impressive underlying numbers this season

Article written after ‘that’ game against Tottenham Hotspur on 30/09/2023

After a difficult season by his extreme standards last time around, Virgil van Dijk has started this campaign by playing close to some of his best football. Although these are still early days, the signs are positive, especially considering the tough games Liverpool have had to face in the league so far, along with the refereeing blunders forcing the team to play with 10 or nine men in three games.

After exceeding all expectations in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 season, the ACL injury at the start of the 2020/21 campaign was a massive jolt for the 32-year-old. Although he did exceptionally well in the return year when Liverpool went close to winning all the trophies; the lack of pre-season ahead of the 2022/23 season and a World Cup right in between did not help. So, it is not really a surprise that he struggled at the time.

But, after a good pre-season this summer, things are starting to look normal for van Dijk once again. Getting the leadership responsibility after the departure of Jordan Henderson seems to have elevated his game as well.

Right, let’s analyse the 32-year-old’s performance this season, compare it to his past and more. It is a numbers and graphical-based analysis. 

Van Dijk - 2023/24 Season Numbers Ranked

Below, we have a table consisting of van Dijk’s numbers so far this season ranked amongst the centre-backs in the Premier League. Players with a minimum of 300 minutes under their belt are included for some sort of sample size inclusion.

The 32-year-old is best when it comes to winning all sorts of duels - be it defensive, overall or aerial. Considering the amount of aerials he is contesting, winning close to 88% of them is simply phenomenal. It shows that he is physically strong and the trust in the legs are there to make the jump for these duels and land perfectly thereafter.

The interception numbers being very good shows that the Dutch captain is back to his best in reading the game well and snuffing out opposition attacks before they become troublesome for the team. Passing accuracy numbers don’t surprise me anymore because there aren’t many centre-backs in the game who have had that level of accuracy and control with their passing over a period of many years.