Virgil van Dijk

Mjällby was 27 or 28 by the time he came to us, so he was pretty much the finished article and was already a fixture in the Sweden team by that point, so the comparison is unfair in my opinion.

Van Dijk certainly has the potential to be a better player than Mjällby, but you're right, at the moment he isn't. He simply hasn't been around long enough to prove it.

 

Yeh, but the claim is that he's the best Celtic player since Henrik, not that he has the potential to be the best player since Henrik, so we can only compare them during their respective times at the club. I agree he has the potential to be better than Mjallby, however a lot has to go right for that potential to be realised imo.

The point I was trying to make was more that giving him this accolade kind of underates the ability of a lot of very, very talented players we've had over the last decade, many of whom made more of an impact at the highest level. VVD could welll get to their level (as could Wanyama imo) or even surpass it, but he's got a fair bit to accomplish in the game before I would rate him as highly as say Lambert, Mjallby, or Petrov for that matter.

 

Nonsense.

 

To me, the statement "best player since Larsson" means best player since Larsson left. Which was the same season as Mjallby. So Mjallby doesn't come I to the equation.

 

Yeh that's fair enough. You could possibly take out Lambert too as he wasn't really a full-time player anymore.

 

Personally I still see Naka as that player purely for selfish reasons. Loved the guy

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Best CB we've had since loovens

 

Jesus wept... not like fitba fans to pour on the hyperbole when we're selling a player!

VVD is a rough diamond (at best) and probably a good investment for a club like Southampton at the £10 mill mark.

But lets be clear... he's not the player some are making out, and he most certainly is NOT the best player we've had since Larsson left!

 

Statements like this just heap pressure on players. No wonder he wants to leave, he'll know himself how difficult it would be for him to ever escape Looven's shadow here.

 

"Rough Diamond" Is he *. He's the most complete defender we've had in ages.

 

I don't think there's a lot about his play abd style that can be described as 'rough'

 

It's a figurative term... not the finished article (as you both well know).

 

All our players are in Loovens shadow. He's immortal.

 

Only if he stayed for another CL campaign would we get a true indication of the level Virgil is at with us..

He may end up playing in the CL in the future but our league is so poor it's difficult to judge him against the likes of Mjalby etc..

He does however, have all the attributes to be the best defender we've had in the modern era..

His positioning, reading of the game, strength and dominance have all improved since he joined..he remains a work in progress but will no doubt continue to get better.

If he could show a little patience and perform well in the CL a bigger club than the wee ones linked with him will snap him up.

 

Aye he can improve on things, but if he improves much more he'll be pushing the best centre halfs in the world. In our terms, it's not unfair to at least consider him as the best since Larsson. Who would you say was?

 

He already performed well in the CL, one bad game against Milan aside.

 

You can compare players across different positions. Not as directly as say one centre back with another but it can be done.

As I keep saying I don't doubt his potential. The point I was responding to was someone saying he's the best Celtic player since Larsson, not that he could progress to be best Celtic player since Larsson. As such we can only really compare how he is at Celtic with how others were at Celtic.

I don't particularly hold his CL campaign against him, just think he looked okay, where a lot of other players over the course of the last decade have looked better.

 

We and he are different prospects in the CL now would be interesting to see how he does