Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool has moved up the all-time Premier League goalscoring charts for defenders at the weekend. Van Dijk scored the opener against Sheffield United, converting Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner.
With that, the Dutchman now has 21 Premier League goals. That’s across spells with both Southampton and Liverpool.
Only four defenders in Premier League history can top that number. One of them is incredibly familiar to the Reds, too – Sami Hyypia.
The former captain (in fact, Hyypia and Van Dijk are the only non-British club captains in Liverpool’s history) scored 22 times in the top flight, level with former Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.
Gary Cahill has the second-most goals. He bagged 28 in his time in the Premier League, with Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea and Crystal Palace. That falls some way short of first place, however.
John Terry sits atop the rankings with an incredible 41 goals for Chelsea in the Premier League. It’s a figure that isn’t getting beaten anytime soon.
The fact that Van Dijk can score with any reasonable consistency is just an incredible bonus to Liverpool. He can do absolutely everything else you want from a defender – his ability on and off the ball at the back is world-leading.
But scoring goals, too? It’s difficult to think of a more complete player in any position, quite honestly. Liverpool couldn’t possibly ask for more from their captain.
And it’s reasonable to expect that Van Dijk scores at least one more this season to move joint-third on the list with Hyypia and Koscielny.
The Liverpool captain has scored at least three times in each of his full seasons with the Reds. If he matches that again this season, he’ll be third outright.
