As the leader of what is a rapidly changing centre-back department at Liverpool, there’s an argument to be made that club captain Virgil van Dijk is more important than ever.
The skipper turned 35 last month and is now comfortably inside the final year of a two-year contract extension penned in April 2025.
Usually, such circumstances would suggest that the long goodbye is underway, but Van Dijk remains a totem of this squad, ready to showcase his value to what is now his third manager at Anfield in Andoni Iraola.
With Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet – aged 19 and 21, respectively – yet to kick a ball for the club in the Premier League, Joe Gomez once more blighted by injuries and Ronald Araujo set to be confirmed as an emergency loan signing from Barcelona, the presence of Van Dijk is a reassuring one for new head coach Iraola.
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Even in his mid-30s, Van Dijk remains an elite defender, an enormously influential figure behind the scenes and a beacon of surety at a time when uncertainty reins.
But the last 12 months have been punishing for the two-time Premier League winner.
No player featured more than Van Dijk across Europe’s top five leagues last time out, with the Netherlands star clocking up 5,841 prior to the World Cup, where he featured for every minute of Oranje’s run to the last-32 stage.
His World Cup campaign brought that figure up to 6,141 minutes over 69 appearances for club and country, working out at an average of 89 minutes per game.
It’s a remarkable statistic for a player in the Autumn of his career, not least someone who suffered a debilitating ACL injury in October 2020. Such a workload led to Van Dijk himself requesting more time off than usual this summer.
“I’ve had six, seven or eight days [training], so I was very keen to get minutes in my legs and glad I came out of it with no issues,” Van Dijk says after his first appearance of the pre-season schedule on Sunday.
“It has been absolutely fine [working with Iraola], we had a great conversation in the first week when it got announced and the main thing for him to know is that I am here for him regardless.
“Anything he needs, wants to know, wants me to do for the team or whatever I am here for him and hopefully we will be successful this season and that’s what we want.
“Nothing to take away from Arne and his staff, we had an amazing time together, obviously last year a disappointment. This year we have a new manager who has new ways of preparation.
“So we have to adapt to a new staff, different training methods but I liked working under Arne and I am sure I will like working under the new manager.”
Van Dijk, as revealed in a post-match chat following Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Monaco, personally requested to skip the club’s pre-season tour of the United States after his three-week, post-World Cup vacation.
The veteran felt he would be better served working at the club’s AXA Training Centre base rather than taking more long-haul journeys that would lead to inevitable jet lag at the most important time of the season for getting fit.
He says: “I definitely asked for a good break because I felt like I needed it, not only physically but mentally as well.
“It was a very demanding year from before pre-season started last year until the day I got knocked out of the World Cup so I felt like I needed a good break and I had maybe three days more than Ryan (Gravenberch), Flo (Wirtz) and Alex (Isak).
“For me it was key I didn’t want to go to America because I didn’t want to get jet lag and after come back from that as well.
“And I felt like having a couple of extra days at the AXA, doing the testing before the team was there and getting ready for when the team was back to immediately crack on, I felt that was for me personally the best way.”
But aged 35 and with so much change throughout the squad – particularly in the position where he plays – the decorated Van Dijk insists he is ready to be as vital for Iraola as he was for Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot, during a six-year period that saw Liverpool lift every major trophy available to them.
“Yes [I’m ready to go again],” he says. “Are you going to say I’m 35 years old and I can’t do it?
“At the end of the day, you have to look after yourself. You have to be, I wouldn’t say lucky, but you have to do everything in your power.
“That is the bare minimum for me because I feel the responsibility to be ready for each and every game. We play every three days. Between games, at home, at the training ground, you have to do everything in your power to be ready to play again.
“For me, I feel good. I am also a late bloomer so you know, maybe…it is what it is.
“I feel fine and I want to make all the fans proud all over the world that support us wherever we go, and that is by winning games and by showing what it means to wear the shirt every time, and that is for me the bare minimum anyway, so we keep going.”
The departures of Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah, just a year on from what was already a significant turnover in the playing squad, gives the feel of a new era under Iraola, which is something that Van Dijk, approaching his 10th season at Anfield, acknowledges.
“It definitely feels like a bit of a transition, for sure,” Van Dijk says. “It is down to everyone associated with Liverpool to make sure we are building something that will be successful for years to come.
“This year, we want to be successful, but there is a lot of work still to be done.
“We all know how difficult it is to be playing in the Premier League, the League Cup, the FA Cup, and the Champions League, so we need everyone at their best.
“We need to be consistent and win more games. Let’s see what the next couple of weeks are going to bring [in the transfer window]. Any quality we can add to the team will definitely be welcome so let’s see.”
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