On Friday evening Virgil van Dijk played his first interland as captain of the Dutch team and, despite the 0-1 defeat against England, was satisfied with the way the defense stood. The stopper of Liverpool, together with Stefan de Vrij and Matthijs de Ligt, formed a three-man defence and was afterwards impressed by the latter’s talent.
In conversation with De Telegraaf, Van Dijk calls the current captain of Ajax an ‘excellent player’: “Of course Matthijs still has a very long way to go. The eighteen-year-old De Ligt has been increasingly associated in recent weeks with a trip abroad, and Van Dijk does not think that his fellow international member will necessarily have to ripen for a number of years in the Eredivisie.
“Good enough is old enough,’ they often say. Of course, I do not know what options he has. But when I see how he stands up in the Orange, it doesn’t matter whether he leaves the Eredivisie or in two years’ time. But that’s ultimately up to him”, the most expensive defender of all time goes on. Van Dijk himself, via Celtic and Southampton, took a ‘detour’ to the top and thinks that the most important thing for De Ligt is that he makes the right choice regarding his next step.
Van Dijk was in any case satisfied with the way the young defender stood up and indicates that De Vrij and he communicate a lot and try to keep De Ligt involved in the game in the same way: “Things are getting better and better. Despite the fact that we have not been able to train a lot together. But also outside the field we have discussed how we would like to have it.
Do you think Matthijs de Ligt is ready for a trip abroad?
