Who will prevail out of Vincent Kompany, Virgil van Dijk, Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas?
Monday 20 April 2020 17:24, UK
After the launch of ‘The Greatest Squad’ on Friday, three Premier League Players have been locked in, with the tough number four in question on Monday’s Twitter poll.
Peter Schmeichel received a hefty 62 per cent of the votes on Friday, fending off strong competition from David Seaman, Petr Cech and David De Gea to grab the No.1 shirt. Gary Neville took up the right back slot, having earned 62 per cent of the votes. Branislav Ivanovic was the closest opposition with 17 per cent.
Ashley Cole was tipped highly to win the battle of number three, despite the likes of Gareth Bale, Patrice Evra and Denis Irwin in there for a stern group. Cole duly delivered, the former England international racking up 55 per cent of the votes.
The number fours is arguably the hardest one to call to date and features two mountains at the back, Virgil van Dijk and Vincent Kompany, and two Arsenal icons in Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas.
Have your say below, or keep your eyes peeled for #TheGreatestSquad on @Super6.
Former Arsenal man and current Soccer Saturday pundit Charlie Nicholas weighs in with his thoughts on all four of the players in question, and who he thinks should run out as the winner in this group...
We have got four players here who are all leaders. Van Dijk has become a leader and Fabregas was given a leadership role quite young in his career. The other two are more natural and prominent leaders, but all four are different footballers.
Van Dijk has extreme coolness, he is calm on the ball and does not dive in. Sometimes he does not even need to do too much to look as if he is doing a lot. I watched him closely at Celtic. I watched the Dutch set-up and wondered why nobody was coming in for him.
If we throw this back in time to Kompany, Van Dijk is a much better footballer than him. Kompany was more in line with the physicalities of English football.
The progression to Liverpool was where Van Dijk became a leader. As time goes on, depending on how much he plays, he could well become one of the best defenders of all time. If he gets a move, it will be to Real Madrid or Barcelona, and he will become what is probably the case now, being one of, if not, the best centre-back in world football. There were mistakes in his game at Southampton, but he has showed the prominence of style and coolness at Liverpool, playing with those players.
Defending has become harder since Kompany arrived in the country.
Kompany was more embracing of the British game in terms of its physicality, while having an understanding of it all. When he played at Manchester City, he was the best centre-back in the world for around three seasons. His leadership was natural, but I cannot believe it took clubs so long to get him.
Even when he appears on Sky Sports now, he comes across as an honest and stand-up guy, a real good dressing-room player, with a great reputation for what he has done, what he helped Manchester City become.
Everybody goes with the likes of Sergio Aguero and David Silva for the figureheads of this evolution, but Kompany for me was the most valuable player at the football club. Van Dijk is one of the most valuable at Liverpool, but Kompany was the man to bring trophies and titles to City, so he would get a nod ahead of Van Dijk.
Vieira was a master of understanding the physicality of the Premier League, all while having lovely ability. He had long, gangly legs to slide in and win the ball, and he stole and robbed the ball with a delicate move, before gliding off, floating across the ground in the process. He was a player who played in a great team, who was a great addition to that side. He was an exceptional footballer all-round.
For what the 'Invincibles' were, he was a major part of it, and he would give something to his team to sacrifice his personal agenda. It was about his team and the winning mentality. He helped France become the world's and European best. It was quite sad how Vieira went away from Arsenal and moved on, but he moved on for one of my favourites, Fabregas.
I went to Highbury for one of the last European nights against Juventus. Fabregas ran the game that night. He had a touch of Cruyff about him, the calmness and awareness of him. He had a Spanish tiki-taka about him, keeping the ball moving so delicately. He had limited pace but you could never tell.
I love players who always look for the ball, not for the glory, but because they can make things happen. Fabregas was a technician. Arsene Wenger sung his praises on how he did things, how he involved players and how he could make things happen, and because of that, I became a real fan. He adapted to the English set-up and he blended in with the youngsters. He spent a period of time carrying Arsenal.
Other players were maybe putting the hard yards in and working harder, but you want stardust and Fabregas was just that. I loved everything about a young guy who was trying his best when he had the ball, the same without, but knew unlike the other three, that he was in a limited team when he became 20/21. This is a guy who set up the winner in a World Cup final, played in a false nine for Spain and was generally just a naturally gifted world star. As much as I love him, he has to be fourth out of these.
Kompany gets the nod, but there are inches between them all. It is so tight between them, and this will be the great thing about a poll. Everyone will see differing aspects about this and styles, and that is what I love about the game.
It is easy to be bias with Vieira and Fabregas, but with what has been created at Manchester City, Kompany has helped to attract some of these stars, to get it all going in the right direction, and that is why he is number one. This will be a great poll, as these are four absolutely magnificent footballers.
