Messi vs van Dijk - who is the better player?

• Lionel Messi’s has the following offensive skills. He has 8 goals and a total of 35 shots on goals. This results in a goal conversion rate of 58%. He had a total of 45 big chances. Expected goals can only be provided to logged in users.
• Virgil van Dijk has the following offensive skills. He has 2 goals and a total of 0 shots on goals. This results in a goal conversion rate of 29%. He had a total of 8 big chances.

• Regarding the passing and playmaking skills we can see the following picture. Lionel Messi has a total of 11 asssists, 78 key passes (these are passes leading to a shot on goal) and he created a total of 57 chances.
• Virgil van Dijk has a total of 0 assists, 6 key passes and he created a total of 3 chances.
• Another important metric to measure the players performance is the pass completion rate in general and more importantly the pass completion rate into the opponents box – because this is where most goals are made. Lionel Messi has a pass completion rate of 59% for passes into the box. Virgil van Dijk has a pass completion rate of 33% for passes into the box.
• Expected goals, expected goal build up and expected goal chain value are only visible to our logged in users.

• Lets have a look at Lionel Messi’s and Virgil van Dijk’s defensive skills. Lionel Messi has a total of 1 blocks, 5 aerial duels and a total number of 27 tackles.
• Virgil van Dijk has a total of 9 blocks, 82 aerial duels and a total number of 23 tackles.

Given all statistical values we believe that Lionel Messi is the better player at the moment. Please feel free to discuss with us – the comment box is below. We will be happy to reply.