00:00 Right, next up we're going to need a defender and I'm going to propose who was at one time
00:11 the most expensive defender in the world, let alone just in the Premier League with
00:14 Hobbits club, Rio Ferdinand. Just a fantastic defender at the time and I was talking earlier
00:19 about Van der Sar being ahead of the game when it came to being a bit of a ball-playing
00:23 goalkeeper. Ferdinand I think was a real step up for centre-backs in terms of the way they
00:27 played the ball. Not that he was the first centre-back in history to be good with the
00:31 ball at his feet, to be a good passer and be a good dribbler, but I think he took that
00:36 up a notch and I can't really think of any other defenders in his era who could do all
00:40 that stuff as well or as composed with the ball. And also he was great at the basics
00:46 as well. Fabulous defender in the old-fashioned sense, really good in the air, never shy of
00:51 a tackle. Had some ridiculous record, I can't remember the numbers for how long he went
00:55 without getting a booking after he started his career in the Premier League, which for
00:58 a centre-back was extraordinary. Hundreds of games, he never even got a yellow card.
01:02 It tells you how good his tackling was and how well he measured a challenge. A bit of
01:07 a strange guy off the field, I think we can agree. I always love the detail of him trying
01:10 to start a boxing career after retirement, going in the gym, being refused a licence
01:14 by the British Boxing Board of Control and then announcing publicly that he was, and
01:18 I quote, "hanging up his gloves". He's also possibly the only person to try and pretend
01:23 to kidnap David Beckham for a prank, which is just an odd guy. I think we could all agree,
01:29 but a fabulous, fabulous defender. And if I want Van der Sar to get protected, I think
01:34 one of his old teammates seems like a pretty good shout to me.
01:37 Yeah, you see, I'm going to go with Virgil van Dijk. I think it's, you can talk about
01:44 Rio Ferdinand not getting booked for however many games, but how long was it that Virgil
01:49 van Dijk went without being dribbled past? It was a ridiculous length of time, wasn't
01:53 it?
01:54 Yeah, it's nearly the whole season. Yeah. I think you got down once right at the end,
01:58 just to ruin statistical articles.
02:02 If you're looking for the measure of a defender, I don't think it gets much better than that.
02:06 Obviously, Liverpool's record signing when he came in and just absolutely magnificent.
02:14 The transformative effect that he had alongside Alison Becker as well, I think it's fair to
02:18 say, but those two signings, particularly van Dijk, had on that Liverpool side and what
02:22 had then catapulted them forth to be able to do off the back of that. It just cannot
02:26 be understated. There is a very good reason why for a very long time, van Dijk was considered
02:33 to be the best footballer, best defender, one of the best footballers, certainly the
02:37 best defender.
02:38 One of the best footballers, yeah.
02:39 Yeah, but certainly the best defender in world football. Just absolutely magnificent. And
02:45 I know that over the past season and a half or so, maybe not quite being at his best,
02:50 there's been a bit of a dip in form. He's looked human. But the fact that Virgil van
02:56 Dijk looking human is such a massive criticism is only testament to how good he is when he's
03:02 at his best. And I think that when he hangs up his boots, there will be serious conversations
03:08 about him being one of the very, very best Premier League defenders of all time.
03:12 And I think he would absolutely merit his place in any sort of discussion of that ilk.
03:17 So for me, I do think Rio Ferdinand was bloody brilliant, wasn't he? But for me, I'm tempted
03:23 to go with Virgil van Dijk on this one.
03:25 I think they're both brilliant players. There's no two ways about that. I think if I'm in
03:30 the spirit of conceding things occasionally, I'm not just always going into bat for my
03:34 guy. What I would say is Rio Ferdinand made a massive difference to Manchester United.
03:39 But if he wasn't there, if say he'd been injured for the sort of, you know, that kind of period
03:43 of years or the latter folks years, you get the impression they probably still would have
03:47 won a heck of a lot. If Virgil van Dijk wasn't the Liverpool for that Champions League run
03:51 for the Premier League title they won the year after. I can't see it. I really don't
03:55 think they could possibly have won those trophies without him. He's a real transformational
03:58 player for them. So yeah, I think on that basis alone, I'm going to give you this one.
04:02 I think we'll go with Virgil van Dijk.
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