{"id":4977,"date":"2025-05-27T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:26:10","slug":"chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Wood said Liverpool&#8217;s defender is &#8220;the toughest ever&#8221; and is even more difficult than Van Dik"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik\/#The_toughest_player_in_the_Premier_League\" >The toughest player in the Premier League<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik\/#Chris_Wood_Skullel_the_toughest_defender_Ive_ever_faced\" >Chris Wood: Skullel, the toughest defender I&#8217;ve ever faced<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/chris-wood-said-liverpools-defender-is-the-toughest-ever-and-is-even-more-difficult-than-van-dik\/#The_20_best_centre-backs_ranked_in_Premier_League_history\" >The 20 best centre-backs ranked in Premier League history<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Liverpool&#8217;s Virgil van Dik to Alan Hansen form had the best centre-back of all time, but striker Chris Wood once revealed that he wasn&#8217;t one of the most demanding defender-adored legends he&#8217;d ever faced.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<p>The role of enforcers in football has changed as the game changed. These days, the judges have been looking much more wisely on two pairs of tackles and slow tasks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let them know you&#8217;re there&#8221; was a common phrase once used in the football dressing room up and down in the UK. Whether it&#8217;s in the league on Sunday or the Premier League, the dominant centre-back and tough tackle midfielder used threats as a tactic.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"premier-league-39-s-toughest-players-in-pictures\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_toughest_player_in_the_Premier_League\"><\/span>\n            <strong>The toughest player in the Premier League<\/strong><br \/>\n    <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For Liverpool, these tackles were often played by the likes of Jamie Carrager and Javier Mascherano, and former Manchester United winger Nani revealed why Karager&#8217;s tackle shed tears.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The doctor then looked at my feet and said he was lucky because he needed stitching. I&#8217;ll be out for a couple of weeks. He&#8217;s surprised I can recover even faster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sky Sports Pundit only received the yellow card for Nani&#8217;s tackle. Today&#8217;s game would have been full of straight reds and a huge ban.<\/p>\n<p>Towards the end of Karager&#8217;s Liverpool career, the Reds have signed several centre-backs with the view that they will become successors. Perhaps the most beloved was the 23-year-old Slovak man known as Martin Skulter.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"chris-wood-skrtel-the-toughest-defender-i-39-ve-ever-faced\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Chris_Wood_Skullel_the_toughest_defender_Ive_ever_faced\"><\/span>\n                        <strong>Chris Wood: Skullel, the toughest defender I&#8217;ve ever faced<\/strong><br \/>\n               <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Manager Rafael Benitez was excited when Liverpool signed Skrtel in January 2008 with a relocation fee of \u00a36.5 million, informing fans that the new defender was &#8220;offensive&#8221; and &#8220;very competitive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wood, who faced Skultel when he was a young striker for Leicester, went one more time in an interview on the 2021 Premier League YouTube channel.<\/p>\n<section class=\"emaki-custom-block emaki-custom-pullquote\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"emaki-custom pullquote\" id=\"custom_block_15\">\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p>&#8220;Skrtel was actually one of the toughest things ever. He didn&#8217;t give you a minute of peace. He pinched you, didn&#8217;t push you away, and he didn&#8217;t calm you down.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"custom_block-content pullquote\">\n<p>&#8220;At the time I was probably too young to change something and do something to him, but now I like to think I&#8217;ll deal with him better. He did the job and put off my game, so it was a good learning curve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>Skrtel left Liverpool in 2016 and signed Fenerbah\u00e7e. Despite not winning many trophies during his time at Merseyside, Liverpool fans have love.<\/p>\n<div class=\"display-card  article article-card small  no-badge  active-content                      \" data-include-community-rating=\"false\" id=\"7613-4ebf-8192909e156a\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<div class=\"w-img \"><\/div>\n<p>                    <span data-field=\"label\" class=\"article-card-label\">Related<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"w-display-card-content regular article-block\">\n<h5 class=\"display-card-title \"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_20_best_centre-backs_ranked_in_Premier_League_history\"><\/span>\n<p>\t\t\tThe 20 best centre-backs ranked in Premier League history<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Where is Virgil van Dyke ranked?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The former Slovak International played 320 times for Liverpool and scored 18 goals in the 2011-12 season, winning the League Cup. Despite still 51 carding yellow cards, he received one red card in the UK as he was sent in a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham in September 2011.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool&#8217;s Virgil van Dik to Alan Hansen form had the best centre-back of all time, but striker Chris Wood once revealed that he wasn&#8217;t one of the most demanding defender-adored legends he&#8217;d ever faced. The role of enforcers in football has changed as the game changed. These days, the judges have been looking much more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[861,381,406,865,40,609,863,864,862],"class_list":{"0":"post-4977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-chris","9":"tag-defender","10":"tag-difficult","11":"tag-dik","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-liverpools","14":"tag-toughest","15":"tag-van","16":"tag-wood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}