SOL BAMBA: STATS SUGGEST NEIL WARNOCK WAS RIGHT!

Liverpool's Virgil Van Dijk vs Cardiff City's Sol Bamba: The ridiculous stats that suggest Neil Warnock was actually right
By Dominic Booth


Friday 16th November 2018


The Cardiff City centre-back has recorded better figures than Liverpool's big money man

Neil Warnock famously claimed Sol Bamba was a better defender than Virgil Van Dijk


When Neil Warnock said Sol Bamba was a better defender than Liverpool's Virgil Van Dijk, the majority of the football world scoffed.

Even the Cardiff City boss himself recently admitted he "must have had a few drinks" when making the comment — that went viral in December 2017 when Van Dijk moved from Southampton to Anfield for £75million.

Van Dijk came out on top when the pair finally met last month, Liverpool beating the Bluebirds 4-1.

But a scan over the official Premier League stats for the season so far, suggests Warnock might have had a point after all.

Bamba is ahead of his Dutch counterpart in almost every respect.

Goals? He has two to Van Dijk's nought.

Shots on and off target? The Cardiff star has had more.


Even defensively, Bamba is recording better statistics than Van Dijk, having made 11 blocks, 26 interceptions, 16 successful tackles, 77 clearances and won 50 aerial battles — more than Van Dijk in each category.

And while Liverpool fans may rightly indicate those figures are slanted by the fact Bamba's Cardiff spend a lot more time defending than Jurgen Klopp's side, they have caused plenty of amusement on social media.

"Van Dijk's got better attributes on the ball but I don't think he's a better defender than Sol Bamba," was Warnock's famous comment.

"I think Van Dijk's is more confident on the ball and easier on the eye but I don't think he's better defensively."

Maybe the Cardiff boss was right after all?

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What the stats don't tell us.... positioning, leadership, organisation.

Sol has on occasions been found wanting in his positioning, look at the Brighton goal on Saturday, Sol was not as tight as he should have been

This is getting silly now, of course Bamba is going to have more defensive stats than Van Dijk at I guess I would bet Morrison has similar just for the simple fact that we spent a lot of the game defending compared to Liverpool.

Stupid article. Might as well put a stat of how many goals Liverpool have conceded compared to us.

We all love Sol, he's a brilliant character and a fan favourite but for me I've been disappointed in his concentration this season.

Yes he got the winner on Sat but he's in the team to defend and he's cost us too many goals this season!! Chelsea, 2 goals vs Arsenal, Saturday etc. I'm hoping he'll adapt as he's never played this level before!

Er... OBVIOUSLY Bamba has way higher defensive stats - we are always defending and Liverpool are always attacking.

Getting quite fed up by the click bait headlines on this forum now

Er... OBVIOUSLY Bamba has way higher defensive stats - we are always defending and Liverpool are always attacking.

Getting quite fed up by the click bait headlines on this forum now

Click bait?

It was out there, so we shared it with Forum members and (until you) I don't think anyone took it too seriously!

Er... OBVIOUSLY Bamba has way higher defensive stats - we are always defending and Liverpool are always attacking.

Getting quite fed up by the click bait headlines on this forum now

Click bait?

Correct, seems to be a regular theme now... prime example - not so long ago the headline was “NEIL WARNOCK RETIRING“ when in fact the during the article all he actually said was Cardiff would probably be his last job!

You can turn stats into whatever suits your agenda best. Ten out of nine people know that.

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Booth seems to conveniently ignore the goals conceded stats.
Us over 2 a game, Liverpool less than 1 every 2 games

Yeah could somebody add goals conceded and mistakes made to that.

It’s as bad as when Swansea players were getting compared to Xavi.

I would swap Bamba for VVD in a heartbeat

Booth seems to conveniently ignore the goals conceded stats.
Us over 2 a game, Liverpool less than 1 every 2 games

Go and put the kettle on love