Man Utd legend Rio Ferdinand has made his pick out of who he rates higher, a prime Nemanja Vidic or a prime Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool right now.
The question was put to him in a recent Q&A he held on his Instagram account, and it will come as no surprise that there was a slight bias to his answer.
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While keen to stress that he certainly rates Van Dijk highly given the influence that the Dutch international is having in the Liverpool defence currently, he couldn’t look past the man who partnered him for several successful years at Man Utd.
The pair formed a solid foundation on which United based that success, and that relationship has led to Ferdinand picking his former teammate.
“Prime Van Dijk or prime Vidic? [It’s a] good question,’ he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. “I’ve got to go with Vidic because he was my partner, man. He was my partner. He covered my back and I covered his. That was it.
“I love Van Dijk, don’t get me wrong,” he added. “I love him. [I think he’s the] best defender in the world now, definitely. I’d love to have seen him play in our time, seen what he was about. That would have been interesting. [He’s a] top player.”
As with any debate over a past and present player, there will always be alternative views and opinions and a never-ending discussion given the inability to fairly compare.
For Ferdinand though, he’s sticking with his former teammate and Man Utd defensive rock and while many United fans will agree with his pick, Liverpool fans will undoubtedly have a very different view on it as Van Dijk continues to emerge as the stand-out defender in Europe.