Re trophies for Virg, they need to come and surely will. My wider point was I can't think of a single defender in the history of the game who was at or above his level across such a wide range of attributes.
That's the thing for me. He's an absolute freak and we won't see his like again for a very, very long time. He's up there with the best of the best in any given area, but has so much more to his game than that. Just take that list above -
Terry - Virgil is, if anything, slightly better in the air, at least as strong, calmer, just as good a leader but far, far faster with massively more technical ability.
Ferdinand - Virgil is at least as good in the air and probably quicker than Ferdinand was and, again, much better on the ball.
Even if we take great players from the past--
Baresi - Our offside trap is at least as good as Milan's was, and VvD is a key to organising it. So Virgil matches Baresi's best - his organisation, leadership plus pace and ability on the ball (for a younger Baresi) while, physically, absolutely destroying him.
The GOAT who can match Virgil in the air are either miles slower (Hyppia) or relatively shit with the ball (Terry) or both.
The ones who can match Virgil for pace are either miles worse in the air or technically inferior or both...etc etc etc.
Virgil is basically a world class dream CB pairing - in one player. That's why he makes everyone next to him look so good. He's got the pace to cover Matip, the aerial ability to cover Gomez and the technical ability to cover Lovren. Whoever is next to him can simply focus on doing what they do best knowing that, not only will Virgil be able to do the other stuff to a world class standard but also that they're not 'exposing' anything else by doing that. If Gomez gets done for pace, say, Virgil is still fast enough to make a recovery tackle.
I've never seen his like and it's insane that he hasn't been playing at the highest level for years now. The whole world of football scouting dropped a colossal collective bollock on that one.
