The only defenders who were close to Virgil in modern era football were Laporte and Kompany. Virgil is still better though. Laporte tailed off majorly later.
If my use of the term modern era is misleading.
2010 onwards
He had one (understandably) weak season following injury. Has otherwise been imperious. No one comes close in recent times, and I think heās at least in the argument with those you mentioned above.
Will leave the pre-WWII era for @cynicaloldgit to reminisce and compare.
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Hasnāt done it for long enough nor been successful enough to seriously be ābest everā.
Football existed before 2018 you know.
Only up to 1992 though
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Football yes.
Iāve included Nesta, Baresi and Maldini in that. The ones Iāve watched.
Before that they always referred to pre-war and post-war records.
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Heās been at a very high level from the time he joined Liverpool.
That makes almost 8 years now. 8 years in a career for a footballer is long enough. A general career for a footballer is 15 years. From Age 20 to age 35.
Playing 8 out of 15 years (with a couple still to come hopefully) at a high level is the definition of longetivity.
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Alisson , Gerrard , Suarez , Van Dijk
As much as I would have loved to keep Mo and Xabi there.
The above 4 are the only 4 world class players that Liverpool have had since 2005.
Mo will end up as a Liverpool legend and rightly so. But the above 4 can make a case to be considered in the top 3 best respective positions of their generation.
When the subject around who the best ever CB was comes up, you canāt have a discussion about it and not have the names of Titus Bramble and Pascal Cygan. Cāest impossible.
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There isnāt any point going to far back. The game is totally different. Comparing Virgil and Yeats is like apples and oranges.
I think Virgil is the best of the modern era, certainly of the 2000s. Anything beyond that is a bit pointless
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Mo Salah isnāt one of the three best right forwards of his generation?
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Because players like Neymar get hyped up without ever actually having to do anything.
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My best 11 since 2005
Alisson
Trent Matip VvD Robertson
Gerrard Alonso
Firmino
Salah Suarez ManƩ
Trent Matip VvD Robertson
Gerrard Alonso
Firmino
Salah Suarez ManƩ
Avoided been laughed at by putting Gini in there ( 
) and donāt think we would need a #6 like Masch or Fabinho with Xabis control so I decided to pull Stevie pack and put Bobby in as a #10 (my 11 my rules 
)
Hopefully in a year or two I will be able to say that Alexis deserves to be in there.
Part of the problem is that there is very little footage the further you go back. Even then, we largely only get to see highlights.
I heard Gary Lineker talking a while back about the debate about whether Ronaldo or Messi was the better player. He said Messi, without a doubt, but his argument was that people look at highlights reels of goals, free kicks and the like and they would show you the spectacular stuff. Unless you watch the games week-in, week-out you never get to see the clever touches, the intelligent positional play and the like.
Linekerās argument about Messi is that he would do something magical, impossible looking, every game, but unless you had watched him in details it would just be missed.
When it comes to assessing players itās all that bread-and-butter stuff that gets missed. I know Iām like that when I watch us because I tend to watch the wings and miss all the midfield trickery.
If you were to ask me about which player I have seen that can do that magical stuff regularly, I would probably say Dalglish. You usually only saw the goals if it was on MotD but in the stadium he would do things that you couldnāt work out how he did it and kept his balance. Iāve heard Manchester United fans say the same thing about George Best in his prime and I totally believe them.
I think we have a few players that I would rate as amongst the best Iāve seen for us. Alisson is an incredible keeper. Iāve seen them all from Clemence onwards and Alisson is exceptional.
We have had a few big centre backs and Iād rate Hansen as the best Iāve seen although I think van Dijkās impact is closer to that which Beckenbauer had for Bayern and Germany. Itās quite difficult to pin him down in a traditional role.
Gerrard was the complete midfielder. Iād say his nearest rivals would be Souness and Callaghan for impact.
Aside from Dalglish, Iād rate Rush as our most complete forward. Itās not just the goals but his whole play - probably nearest to a Lewandowski. But I would really rate Salah up there. Again, I think he has this trick of being able to do the magical touch in every game.
As ever, it is difficult to judge between periods, particularly if you havenāt seen a player.
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Firstly, duration is subjective. Secondly, Van Dijk has been acknowledged as the best centre back in the world ever since he moved to Liverpool, but he didnāt make the leap once he got here. He was already at a similar high level at Southampton, he just never got the recognition he deserved.
Thirdly, if Baresi, Nesta, Beckenbauer, Scirea and everyone else in the conversation were dealing with cheating scum like Van Dijk is, they too would be a lot less accomplished.
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Nesta is still the best CB I saw.
If I did a first XI of my following, looking back when his career is done, Virgil might easily be alongside him at CB.
Thatās of course nothing against some of the other amazing CBās Iāve seen. Some differences are certainly not night and day.
Thereās always a factor of me as a Liverpool fan knowing Virgil better than a Chelsea fan knowing Terry.
But even putting that aside and speaking objectivelly, Virgil is already or will be up there for sure. For a lot of people, maybe the only thing they will say is a lack of more years at the top level.
I think heās got already enough of it and the impact needed to be in the highest group.
And purely individually speaking, I think he is Liverpoolās best footballer in Kloppās era.
(F*ck, weāre in the wrong thread)
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Firstly, no offense meant to anyone taking part in this discussion.
Personally, I feel comparing players from different eras/generations seems a bit pointless excercise to me. The game, on and off the field, would have changed alot make any sensible comparison.
That said, comparing some specific skills makes sense to some extent. Like who was better at ball control or dribbling back then and now. But overall comparison seems unwanted. The GOAT debate always seems unfair to me, there is always some sort of bias in those.
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I remember as a nipper, my Dad walking me to a game at Anfield, when LFC were playing Man Utdā¦ and he said to me, āthere will be a guy called George Best playing for them today, I will point him out, but he will be the only player on the pitch with long hairā¦ You watch and listen he said, whenever he gets the ball, the whole ground will go quiet every time. It wonāt matter where he is on the pitch when he gets it, because he can dribble it from one end to the other without anyone able to tackle himā
Obviously wide eyed at the prospect of that, he was only right though. Each and every time he received the ball, there was a silence from every part of the ground - probably because it was hard to shout anything when your heart stopped beating for a few secondsā¦! The guy had a presence in the game, I have never experienced since.
I feel privileged to have witnessed him in his pomp.
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Yeah, but who won?
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