By Sergio Moya
Virgil van Dijk left Gary Neville in stitches as he joked that Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher wouldn't even make their current squad - stating he would instead be sat in the stands. The Dutchman was a guest on Gary Neville's The Overlap in which he talked about a whole host of subjects including some of his current team-mates, and rival players including Kevin de Bruyne and Lisandro Martinez.
During the interview, Neville asked Van Dijk whether Carragher would make the current Liverpool squad. After Van Dijk asked Neville whether he meant the starting eleven or the squad as a whole, Neville laughed and commented: 'You're not having him in the eleven are you? Van Dijk responded: 'Not even in the first 20. He will be in the stands.'
Neville burst out with laughter at the putdown on his fellow Sky Sports pundit and asked Van Dijk whether he meant that, to which the amused Dutchman responded with a 'yes'. One person who wasn't so amused was Carragher after clips of the moment on the Overlap went viral. On Twitter, he posted a statistic showing that current Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker only has 90 clean sheets in his first 200 games, compared to Pepe Reina who had 102.
Carragher was the leader of Liverpool's defence when Reina was between the sticks at Anfield and was clearly insinuating that he played a big part in helping the Reds keep more clean sheets with the Spaniard in goal, than Van Dijk has while protecting Alisson. He also shared the clip to his Instagram story in which he posted an angry emoji and posted a caption which suggested he would '100%' make the current Liverpool team.
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Carragher is widely regarded as one of Liverpool's all-time great centre backs and is second on the club's record appearance list after featuring in 737 games between 1996 and his retirement in 2013.Van Dijk has been one of the club's most influential signings since he arrived from Southampton for £75million in January 2018.
He, along with the signing of Alisson that summer, made Liverpool a formidable force in defence, which led to them winning the Champions League and Premier League over the following seasons. Van Dijk though has struggled so far this season, which has led to some criticism from Carragher. The 30-year-old's intensity was questioned by Carragher after their defeat to Manchester United earlier this season.
He has also offered the Dutch defender some praise, saying that his performance in the 1-0 victory over Man City was the 'best' he's ever produced for the club. During the Overlap, Van Dijk revealed that he wanted to play with current team-mate Andrew Robertson when he was at Celtic and the Scottish full-back was at Dundee United. He also claimed that both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez should make the plane to Qatar for Gareth Southgate.
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