Virgil Van Dijk may have missed out on the Ballon d’Or earlier this season, but as well as the likelihood of a Premier League winners’ medal around his neck he should be consoled by being nominated for the Turner Prize.

Not for the first time in his Liverpool career, the Dutchman gave a display of such perfection it ought to be exhibited in the Tate Modern. Forget football reporters, the world’s most renowned art critics ought to be invited to review his performance against Manchester United.

Jurgen Klopp is the Anfield curator supreme - only a calamity of epic proportions can prevent the Premier League trophy being the most treasured artifact on display at Anfield at the end of this season - but when this era comes to be recalled, the day Van Dijk completed the reconstruction of Liverpool’s back four will be the heart of the renaissance.

But Van Dijk is no classical centre-half. He is more evolved than that.

His afternoon began with the kind of last ditch lunge the bloodied-shirted defenders of old would have specialised in, denying Daniel James the opportunity to scurry clear. As is often the case, it was the only occasion he looked at full stretch.