Phil Taylor does not hand out shortlists lightly.
When the 16-time world champion talks about who can actually live with Luke Littler over a World Championship distance, the list shrinks fast. Ahead of Ally Pally last winter he boiled it down to a handful of names: Luke Humphries, Josh Rock and Michael van Gerwen.
That was not a throwaway. That was The Power looking at the only players he thought could match the scoring, the nerve and the length of a world title run.
Littler has since made the conversation heavier. He already has two world titles. He retained the Sid Waddell Trophy in January by beating Gian van Veen 7-1. A hat-trick would put him in a club Taylor once owned outright. Only Taylor has won three in a row in the PDC era. Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson managed back-to-back. Nobody else has stacked three.
So when Taylor names three men who can still stop that, fans should listen. Not because he is writing the script. Because he has lived the other side of it.
The three names
Humphries is the obvious one. He beat Littler in the 2024 world final. He has the game for long sets. Taylor’s view last December was that Humphries was building quietly and could still be there at the end.
Rock is the one Taylor kept coming back to. “At the minute, Luke Humphries can match him, and Josh Rock can match him — but they’ve got to keep that pressure going.” That line matters. Taylor was not saying Rock is already at Littler’s level every week. He was saying Rock has the darts to stay with him if he does not blink.
Van Gerwen is the third. Three world titles. The last player before this era who made Ally Pally feel like his house. Taylor still put him in the toss-up: “I think it’s a toss-up between a few: Josh Rock, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, and Michael (van Gerwen).”
Notice who is not on that shortlist as a weekly equal. Price. Clayton. Aspinall. Van Veen. All capable of a night. Taylor was talking about who can live with Littler when the match goes long and the first set has already gone.
How Taylor thinks you beat him
He was blunt about the method.
“You’ve got to take that first set off him. Knock him down, make him nervous, that’s the only way you beat him.”
And this: “The one thing with Luke, his game does dip a little bit, in a patch. Mine did. That’s when you’ve got to keep the pressure on.”
That is the whole theory. Do not wait for Littler to miss. Make him miss first. Then stay there when his scoring drops for a visit or two. Taylor admitted his own game used to dip. He still won 16 worlds because the other man could not cash the dip.
That is the test for Humphries, Rock and Van Gerwen. Not a 110 average for six darts. A first set. Then another. Then the patience not to gift it back.
Where the field actually stands now
Littler is world number one and still the favourite for everything that matters. He has spent 2026 hoovering up majors. The World Series Finals quarter-final loss to Jonny Clayton in Amsterdam was a reminder that he can be beaten in a shorter format. Ally Pally is not a shorter format.
Humphries has had spells where he looks like the only consistent alternative and spells where the majors slip. Rock has the power and the big-stage moments, including that World Cup night for Northern Ireland. Van Gerwen still produces nights that make the building lean in. The question Taylor posed is whether any of them can do it for seven sets against a version of Littler who already knows how to close a world final.
Van Veen has a winning record against Littler on the tour and reached the last world final. He is the dark horse Taylor did not put in that original trio. Fair enough. Form changes. Records at Ally Pally change slower.
Why this still matters in September
We are six days from the World Grand Prix, not the Worlds. That is the point. The next world championship is still the destination. Every major between now and December is another data point on whether those three can apply the pressure Taylor talked about.
If Humphries, Rock or Van Gerwen cannot take a first set off Littler in Leicester, Blackpool or Wolverhampton, the hat-trick talk only gets louder. If one of them does it over a proper distance, the conversation shifts from “who theoretically can” to “who just did.”
Taylor has also said Littler reminds him of that extra gear he used to find when a match tilted. That is the part rivals hate. You play well and he still has another level. The three names are the ones Taylor thought could live in that gear without folding.
My take, for what it is worth
I think Taylor is close and slightly generous. Humphries is still the most complete alternative over a fortnight at Ally Pally. Rock can blow a session apart and then leak doubles. Van Gerwen can still win a final if the draw opens and the timing is right. Van Veen belongs in the conversation more than he did a year ago.
None of that makes Littler catchable as a default. It makes a hat-trick fail-able. That is different.
Three in a row would not put Littler next to Taylor’s 16. It would put him next to Taylor’s streaks. That is the real prize. Taylor knows it. That is why the shortlist was so short.
So who do you trust to take that first set and keep the pressure on when Littler’s scoring dips? Humphries, Rock, Van Gerwen — or someone Taylor left out?
Have your say. The Worlds are still the mountain. These three are the ones The Power would actually send up it.