VIRGIL Van Dijk will lead Liverpool out on Sunday as they receive their first guard of honour at Anfield since securing the Premier League title and – the way the schedule has fallen – I’m sure they couldn’t have picked a better opponent themselves.

It will be another milestone day for the Dutch colossus, as he’s set to make his 300^th Premier League appearance (Liverpool 232, Southampton 67) further adding to his plethora of individual accolades.

Among players to have appeared 300+ times in the Premier League, only five hold a higher win rate than Van Dijk (63.2%), who sits in joint sixth alongside Premier League greats John Terry and Petr Cech.

AVAILABILITY BEING THE BEST ABILITY

Either side of the serious knee injury he sustained in the Merseyside derby back in October 2020, Van Dijk has been virtually ever present for Liverpool since joining the club in January 2018.

Despite missing the final 33 games of the 2020-21 campaign, only four outfield players have played more Premier League minutes than Van Dijk since his making his league debut for the Reds, with three of his teammates also making up the top 10 in that time.

In 2019-20, Van Dijk played every single minute of Liverpool’s Premier League title winning campaign, becoming just the fourth outfield player not to miss a single minute for the Reds in a season after Sami Hyypiä in 2003-04, Jamie Carragher in 2004-05 and Martin Skrtel in 2010-11.

Even more impressively, the Dutchman is on track to achieve this feat once again in 2024-25, something only 11 outfield players have done twice, while Van Dijk would be the first ever player to play every minute of two Premier League title winning campaigns.

DOMINANT, CALM, COMPOSED & CONSISTENT

Between March 2018 and June 2019, Van Dijk played 64 games for Liverpool across all competitions without being dribbled past by an opposing player once. In fact, he is the only defender on record (since 2007-08) to play 25+ games in a Premier League season without being dribbled past, doing so in 2018-19 (38 games played).

During his time at Liverpool, Van Dijk has won 75% of the aerial duels he has contested, the best success rate of any Premier League player during this period.

He’s also completed the most passes in the competition in this time, while maintaining a passing accuracy of just over 90%.

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