- Summer of change at Anfield
- Plenty of experience has departed
- New leadership group in place
WHAT HAPPENED? The Reds have had to assemble a new group of leaders this summer after seeing the likes of Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho depart. A lot of experience has headed through the exits, but there is still plenty on the books at Anfield. Commanding Dutch defender Van Dijk has been appointed as the club’s new skipper, with home-grown star Trent Alexander-Arnold acting as his deputy.
WHAT THEY SAID: Klopp is more than happy with those choices, telling the Reds’ official website on why Netherlands international Van Dijk was asked to lead from the front: “My reaction? It was my decision. We had to make the decision and I had to think about it. But with Virg it's really now not difficult because I think he's an absolutely natural follower of a really big personality with Hendo, and we had to replace James Milner as well. Is that possible with one person? Probably not, so that's why it's really important that we speak, maybe a little bit later, about the leadership group, which is a really important group of people. But Virg has everything to wish for to be a captain of a football club. Number one, he's probably, let me have a think, definitely the best-looking captain in the Premier League, which is important for team pictures! But, of course, personality-wise everything is there.
“He wants to be a leader, he is a leader. He has to step up, like all of us have to step up because we were used to things how they always were and now we have to create something new – a new structure, a new culture – and that's really exciting. He will play a massive role in that – he has to. With the captaincy now, I'm pretty sure in the moment he feels the pride, he feels the honour. The busy stuff of it, the work behind it, he will feel from now on and that's good. We will do that all together, we all will help him. But I think it was the absolute logical decision. When I saw his reaction, I was really happy for him because I was captain of Mainz 05 for a while, which is a nice thing to have but I never felt these kind of things. But obviously being captain of Liverpool FC is completely different. I saw he was really happy about it, so I was happy about it and now we can start working.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Klopp went on to say of handing academy graduate Alexander-Arnold more responsibility: “So, the thing is that the leadership group is Virgil, Trent, Robbo [Andy Robertson], Ali [Alisson] and Mo [Salah], and they all have, like, captain's potential. So it's not that I now sat there and had to make a decision against somebody. I just had to make sure that we make the right decision, and these five players will have a massive role. The vice-captaincy, I just think Trent is ready. He is our Scouser, he is playing for me pretty much since the beginning, if not then half a year later he was with us. He improved, he developed as a player and as a person massively.
“I wanted him to be in that role, we spoke about it and he was more than happy to take it because, again, it's important that the boys understand the work behind the honour, let me say it like that. I think it's a really good decision. Not all my decisions I am always happy with afterwards but with this one I know I will be. I will stay happy because he's not only representing that slightly younger generation, he's representing everything about this club, knowing every person in this club, knowing every driver in the club, knowing really everything – and I think this is really important. And I'm happy to watch and be beside him when he makes the next steps in his development. I think we will hopefully have a lot of joy with this boy and with the new role he should feel the trust we have in him and let's see where that leads to.”
IN THREE PHOTOS:
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GettyWHAT NEXT? Alexander-Arnold thrived as an inverted full-back towards the end of the 2022-23 campaign, as his creativity and passing range is put to better use, while Van Dijk has been a reliable option at the heart of Liverpool’s defence since completing a £75 million ($96m) transfer from Southampton in January 2018.
