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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Mark Wakefield

'We have short memories' - Paul Merson makes blunt Liverpool and Virgil van Dijk points

Paul Merson has made several claims about Liverpool, including Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk.

The Reds are in Premier League action this weekend as they face title rivals Manchester City. Liverpool are one point adrift of City going into the Etihad Stadium showdown with eight matches left to play.

Much of the talk in the build-up to the match has been about how it’s been suggested that both Liverpool and Man City could be two of the best teams in the Premier League era. However, Merson says that he disagrees with those claims.

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The Sky Sports pundit went on to make claims about how Van Dijk would struggle against a former Arsenal team. Merson then went on to speak about Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

“Liverpool and Manchester City are still not up there yet with the greatest Premier League teams of all time,” Merson wrote for the Daily Star .

“They are both great teams and they meet in what should be a real humdinger of a match this weekend that will help decide the title. But when I hear people say these are two of the best teams we've ever seen in the Premier League, I'm not sure they are.

“Arsenal's Invincibles team was one of the greats. So were Manchester United's Treble-winning side. And then there's Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. It's too soon to put either of these teams in that class just yet in my opinion.

“Take Liverpool. Virgil Van Dijk is a great player. But I'd love to see him defend against Thierry Henry in his pomp, with Dennis Bergkamp dropping off. I'm not sure he'd be able to! Could Jordan Henderson and Fabinho live with Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira in midfield? Or Roy Keane and Paul Scholes?

“We've seen some brilliant teams dominate the Premier League and win multiple titles. I just don't think Liverpool and City are quite there yet.

“Jurgen Klopp has only won it once, and Pep Guardiola has only won it back-to-back once. Sir Alex Ferguson did that loads of times. It's very hard to say either of these two current teams are the best ever. They probably need to go on and win multiple titles in a row before you could say that.

“The game is different now as well. City and Liverpool have fantastic squads. It wasn't like that back in my day. There wasn't so much stockpiling of talent at one or two clubs.

“And even then Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira and Petit from Arsenal's Invincibles would walk into either of these teams. Think about some of the great Manchester United teams and the players they had as well. Are Van Dijk and Joel Matip a better pairing than Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were? You'd have Vidic and Ferdinand over Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte every day of the week. We have short memories sometimes.”

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