VINCENT KOMPANY is back in the UK this evening to play his testimonial match four months after helping Manchester City pip Liverpool to the Premier League title.
The Belgian is now back in his home country managing Anderlecht but is getting his proper farewell tonight at the Eithad.
One of the biggest compliments he’s made in the run-up to the game is his answer to who he believes is the best ever centre-back of the Premier League era. The defender to modest to pick himself and didn’t concede to a nauseating answer like John Terry for example. Instead he put the cat among the pigoens by suggesting former Celtic star Virgil van Dijk has been the best.
Kompany believes Virgil has been one of his toughest opponents and that Liverpool are a team transformed with Virgil in the side.
Speaking to SunSport the former City star said:
“Players that really impressed when I played against them at central defence, I would bring it back to Virgil van Dijk.
“It’s a weird one because he hasn’t been on the scene for as long as these names we mentioned, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, these guys were there for a long, long time,”
“But the signs he’s showed in this last few years just make it so obvious that if he would’ve been at the top, top level before that he would’ve been already further as well.
“From what I’ve seen in terms of having an impact on the team, and a defender is never about himself, it’s about his communication with other guys and how you make your team more solid.
“The Liverpool before van Dijk and the one after him it’s a completely different set-up and I’ll give him that one because of that.”
The kudos van Dijk continues to get are no surprise to Celtic fans who saw the big man be a real leader at Celtic. Journalists in this country had the gall to tell us he was not worth ten million at the time – they got that correct in a warped sort of way.
