Former Stoke City stalwart and one-time England international Ryan Shawcross has eulogised Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and said ‘he’s a 10/10’ defender.
Shawcross made 453 appearances for Stoke City during a 14-year stay at the club and regularly came across Van Dijk and Liverpool. In 20 appearances against the Reds, he was on the winning side just four times and lost 11 of the fixtures. Shawcross also won one cap for England and included Van Dijk in his ‘nightmare opposition XI’ he picked for StokeonTrentLive.
Van Dijk was selected as captain for Shawcross and his XI also included former Reds Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Shawcross wrote: “[Van Dijk is] slowly becoming the [best] centre-back ever and he’s my captain in this team. I’ve kept saying that you can’t rank him up there with the best because he hasn’t done it for long enough but the more I watch him, I can’t find a fault in his game.
