Liverpool news: Virgil van Dijk reminds me of ex-Manchester United defender Jaap Stam, says Gary Neville

Gary Neville has said that Virgil van Dijk’s commanding performance for Liverpool against Crystal Palace on Monday night reminded him of former Manchester United player Jaap Stam.

Van Dijk was superb as Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park, with James Milner opening the scoring with a controversial penalty before Sadio Mane’s impressive counter-attacking goal in the dying seconds of the game.

The Dutch defender made the highest number of clearances in the game, with 8, and also completed 73 of his 79 passes. And after watching the game Neville said he had been reminded of former team-mate Stam, who helped United win the treble in United’s famous 1998/99 season.

“He's a far better defender than I thought he was. The impact is far greater than I thought it was,” Neville said.

“He's a monster. He reminds me a little bit of what Jaap Stam was doing at United in terms of his level of performances [but] Jaap Stam over a few years proved it.”

Meanwhile Jamie Carragher said that Van Dijk had all the potential to become as influential as former Reds defender Alan Hansen.

“He should be disappointed if he's not alongside an Alan Hansen if people in 20 years' time when we're thinking of great Liverpool central defenders because I don't there is another centre back who can almost tick every box,” Carragher said.

“You think of the presence, the pace, the strength, ability on the ball. Normally a player will have a couple of those and are lacking somewhere else and they'll have to cover up for that.

“You'll have different strengths but he's got all of them at the moment and players like him in this team now need to be the ones, those leaders who take Liverpool to something bigger and to when they win something big.”

Jurgen Klopp’s side are back at home on Saturday as they face a surely confident Brighton side that put three goals past a sluggish Manchester United on Sunday.