Virgil van Dijk has been nothing short of sensational since joining Liverpool in January.Not only has the Dutchman completely transformed the Reds' defence, but he's made his world-record transfer fee of £75m look like a bargain.Strong, fast and composed, Van Dijk is a born leader and possesses everything you could possibly want in a modern-day centre-back.He's been pivotal to Liverpool's 100% start to the new Premier League season and Jurgen Klopp claims the £75m they paid for him has been forgotten about."Quality comes at a price," the German said last month of Van Dijk. "Cars are like that, players are like that. That's why we paid it."Nobody thinks about it any more and that's good because he's a player in this market at the moment who is at least worth it."Maybe it was cheap but we don't know the future. He loves playing with these boys and that's the most important thing for me.

£75M BARGAIN

"I don't know many defenders in the world who could deal with almost 100% of the situations clear without a foul. It was very important that Virgil was there with that kind of presence."

So good has Van Dijk been over the past 18 months that he was named the new captain of his country, Netherlands, back in March.

Ronald Koeman's side were in action against World Cup winners France in the UEFA Nations League on Sunday night, with Van Dijk starting at centre-back.

The Liverpool man was powerless as Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring in the 14th minute but received some glowing comments from West Ham's James Collins during the interval.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Collins made the bold claim that Van Dijk is the best centre-back in the world right now ahead of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane.

"I think he's the best centre-back in the world," said the 35-year-old.

Very bold indeed. Van Dijk is undoubtedly world class but to say he's better than Ramos and Varane, who won the Champions League and World Cup respectively this year, is a stretch.

Naturally, football fans completely disagreed with Collins' comments. Check out the reaction below.