Virgil van Dijk

PitchKeep Take · The Premier

Virgil van Dijk is the name every board still types and Sleeper already cooled. Consensus 19.84, Sleeper 47, Premier 23. That gap is age plus Liverpool's defensive year: 10 clean sheets is fine, 53 goals against is not Arsenal, and Sleeper subtracts 2 per goal conceded for defenders. Gabriel's 20 GA in fewer minutes is a different sport.

Six goals from a centre-back is the plus that keeps him in the first 25. WhoScored and SofaScore had him third because they rate the player, not the season's GA column. The Premier hears both. Twenty-three is 'Hall of Fame defender, 2025/26 was not a top-ten Sleeper season.'

Instruction: do not draft him in the first two rounds of a Sleeper startup. Do not leave him on the board at 40 in an FPL draft where people are scared of his age. He played 3,420 minutes. The body has not filed the retirement paperwork. The scoring system has filed the GA paperwork.

Virgil van Dijk is a defender for Liverpool, age 35, £6.5m. The Premier ranks him 18th overall by splitting Sleeper BPL 2025 (#47, 167.6 points) with the consensus of 8 other boards (18.0). The industry still has him 29 spots ahead of the 2025/26 Sleeper count. The Premier pays that reputation something, not everything. Brand does not outrun a down year, and a down year does not erase a player Liverpool still builds around.

The 2025/26 Premier League line is 38 starts and 3420 minutes, 6 goals and 1 assists, 10 clean sheets, 53 goals against, 23 tackles and 329 CBI. Official FPL scored it at 175 points (4.6 per match) with 10 bonus. Sleeper's table turned the same counting stats into 167.6. Defenders get 10 a goal, 7 an assist, 6 a clean sheet, and −2 a goal against. CBI at 0.4 and tackles at 1 are how a centre-back cracks the overall 50.