Virgil van Dijk vs Nemanja Vidic: Who was better?

If Nemanja Vidic was in charge of settling this debate, there would only be one winner.

The former Manchester United stopper possesses a crippling inability to offer himself any praise and is reluctant to dwell on the past. But is less tongue-tied when it comes to Liverpool’s number four.

“Virgil van Dijk is one of the best – if not the best – centre-backs in the world,” he declared in 2022. The only criticism Vidic could lay at Van Dijk’s door was his allegiance to Liverpool. “His weakness is that he’s playing for the wrong club.”

Club loyalties are what define this debate for most fans. Yet, when the rivalry (and Vidic’s chronic humility) is put aside, who was actually the better player?

Sir Alex Ferguson revelled in the fact that he could call upon a defender that thrived amid the fight of a Premier League game.

“How many centre-halves can you name who actually like defending?” he once asked. “Vidic liked it. He loved the challenge of sticking his head in there.”

That idea of putting his body on the line was echoed by Robin van Persie: “When I think of him as a footballer, Nemanja puts his head where other players are scared to put their feet.”

The art of defending is not all about actively winning the ball. When Van Dijk led Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2020, he made fewer tackles than Manchester City’s ephemeral attacking midfielder David Silva. Yet, that’s not to say he was bad at tackling, or defending, he simply impacted the game in more subtle ways.

Vidic was a much more front-foot defender than Van Dijk – whose game is more similar to that of Vidic’s long-term partner Rio Ferdinand. The no-nonsense Serbian edges this category, but it’s not as straightforward a decision as one may think.

Ferdinand was often regarded as the silkier member of United’s centre-back pairing, but he has been keen to dispel the myth that Vidic was a purely destructive force.

“As he will tell you with a smile, he could also play with the ball too, which made him complete and a great defender,” Ferdinand insisted. “Because he was so good in the aggressive/attacking the ball areas people probably looked over his ability with the ball to his annoyance!”

There is no need for any of Van Dijk’s teammates, past…