Man Utd legend Ferdinand wades in on Van Dijk vs Vidic debate; calls out Carragher over Torres ‘myth’
Man Utd legend Rio Ferdinand thinks it’s a “myth” that former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres “tortured” Nemanja Vidic.
Ferdinand was addressing comments from Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher on Twitter in which he claimed struggling Virgil van Dijk is “far better” than Vidic ever was.
Carragher wrote on Twitter: “VVD is far better than Vidic, who was a top CB, but have you forgot his performances against Torres?”
But Ferdinand does not like the suggestion Vidic always struggled when he came up against Torres with the former Man Utd defender using Marcus Rashford up against Van Dijk as a comparison.
“Liverpool’s defending… I don’t know what I’m seeing at the moment! I can’t get my head around it. Van Dijk has been the best defender in the world arguably for the last couple of years. He looks a shadow of himself,” Man Utd legend Ferdinand said on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube show.
“He’s lost form, obviously. He said that in a [social media] post after the game that personally and collectively [Liverpool] have lost form, not playing the way they normally would. And that’s fine, that’s fair.
“Him, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] they’ve just got to get back to basics. The way you get out of a rut like that is to just get back to basics.
“I saw Jamie Carragher tweet something about Van Dijk being better than Vidic. I don’t know why, or why that was said or whatever.
“He mentioned [Fernando] Torres – I think Torres scored three goals in 15 games against Vidic. I think it’s a bit of a myth. I think he had a couple of dodgy moments in those games, and he got sent off a couple of times, but that’s kind of been amplified into saying he got tortured every time we played against Torres, which wasn’t the case.
“Three goals in 15 games. [Marcus] Rashford I think has got six in 13 games against Liverpool, does that mean he’s tortured Van Dijk and Van Dijk can’t handle him? Because that’s what you’re saying about [Vidic], if we’re using the same methodology that we’re using for Vidic with the way Rashford is scoring goals against Liverpool, just under one every two games he’s scoring against Liverpool. I don’t know.
“I don’t know why Vidic’s name was thrown in there. People are hammering Virgil van Dijk about his performances this season, he’s had a bit of an off season – which he has, and I think he’d admit that.
“It’s mad. He’s prime time as well. The problem is he had a big injury, and that injury was one where people said, ‘Can he come back from that injury?’ Next season is going to be the telling one. He’s had this season to get himself fit, to get himself up to speed.”
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