da betsul： There were legitimate fears that the Dutchman was in decline last season but he has been integral to his team's quadruple bid

da brdice： As a delighted Virgil van Dijk sat in the dressing room at Wembley after leading Liverpool to victory in his first final as club captain, he turned to the camera and said, smiling, "They thought I was finished!"

Van Dijk's pride in his match-winning performance against Chelsea was understandable, but it was a slight exaggeration on his part. Not even Van Dijk's harshest critics ever felt he was finished. There had been, however, genuine fears that the Dutchman was in decline.

For arguably the first time in his top-flight career, there was an unmistakable air of vulnerability about Van Dijk during Liverpool's trying 2022-23 campaign. He had returned from a horrific knee injury to play a pivotal role in Liverpool's quadruple bid of 2021-22 but there were games last season in which the "monster" no longer seemed so terrifying to opponents. He was being tormented by the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Gabriel Jesus.

"There was a time, maybe before his injury, where you wouldn't even see players take him on," former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville said on Sky Sports in August 2022. "They would refuse and just pass the ball. They are now starting to have a go, thinking 'I have a chance here.'"

Getty'A better centre-back than Haaland is a striker'

On Sunday afternoon, though, Van Dijk went up against the most feared forward in football in Erling Haaland and, as Jamie Carragher put it on , "came out on top". The Reds defender then went even further, arguing that Van Dijk is "a better centre-back than Haaland is a striker".

It's a controversial claim, of course. Haaland's job is to score goals and he pretty much averages one a game. If he stays injury-free, he will almost certainly go down as one of the most effective forwards in history.

Will Van Dijk be remembered as one of the greatest defenders of all time? It's not a given, not yet at least. But he's certainly a more rounded footballer than the Norwegian No.9, which makes him a much greater influence on those around him.

"The great centre-backs don't just play their own game," Carragher pointed out. "They control the whole back four." And Van Dijk gave a masterclass in that regard against City.

AdvertisementAn awesome display at Anfield

He was the only regular member of the Liverpool back five to start at Anfield, with Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate all ruled out through injury, and Andy Robertson only fit enough for the bench.

Among their replacements were a 20-year-old (Conor Bradley) and a 21-year-old (Jarell Quansah) who had never experienced Premier League football before the start of the current campaign, and a right-footed centre-back playing left-back (Joe Gomez). And yet City limited free-scoring City to one first-half goal from a clever corner-kick routine. Van Dijk was the main reason why.

Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister were obviously immense in midfield, completely wresting control of the game away from Rodri while nullifying the threat posed by Kevin De Bruyne.

However, it's telling that no player on the pitch won more tackles or made more interceptions than Van Dijk (four apiece). City didn't even bother to try to attack him in the air either – which was hardly surprising, given he's won more aerial duels (140) this season than any other defender across Europe's top-five leagues.

GettyThe complete package

Van Dijk is not just a great defender, though. What sets him apart from so many of his rivals is his distribution of the ball, and his passing against City was sensational, as underlined by his 97.5 percent success rate. It wasn't as if he was solely playing short passes to team-mates either; Van Dijk was always looking to switch the play and pick out runners from deep.

One can understand Carragher's argument, then, because Liverpool's inspirational, ball-playing centre-back is constantly involved in their build-up play; City's No.9 is not.

However, the most impressive aspect of Van Dijk's revival is arguably the way in which he has provided irrefutable proof of his leadership skills.

Remember, it's not so long ago that Dutch legends were questioning his captaincy credentials. There were never such doubts at Anfield, of course, and, this season, Van Dijk has fully vindicated Jurgen Klopp's decision to give him the armband after Jordan Henderson's departure last summer.

GettyTaking 'full responsibility' for rare mistakes

His tenure didn't exactly start well, with Van Dijk picking up the first red card of his Liverpool career in the 2-1 win at Newcastle last August.

An uncharacteristically reckless tackle should have cost his team the game; instead the resilient Reds came from behind to claim the unlikeliest of victories thanks to Darwin Nunez's late double coupled with a remarkable rearguard action.

However, Van Dijk owned that error, which he compounded by talking himself into an extended ban, and he took "full responsibility" again after the mix-up which gifted Arsenal the go-ahead goal in the 3-1 loss at the Emirates at the start of February.

Such honesty and humility only earned him more respect from his team-mates, and the club's supporters.