Steven Gerrard has welcomed Jurgen Klopp’s call to name Virgil van Dijk as Liverpool’s new captain following Jordan Henderson’s move to Saudi Arabia.
During the last 20 years, only two men have donned the armband for Liverpool – Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard.
So, from that perspective, Virgil van Dijk has some big shoes to fill, as he reacted to his new role at the club on Instagram.
The 32-year-old might be coming off a worrying season, but he is still one of Jurgen Klopp’s most important players and perhaps the first name on the teamsheet.
And that responsibility will only grow now that a number of senior stars have left, including Henderson joining Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq team in Saudi, James Milner going to Brighton on a free transfer and Fabinho also now wanting to get a taste of life in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, when Van Dijk spoke about being Liverpool’s new captain on IG, in the comments section of his post, Gerrard wrote the following message.
“Congratulations,” wrote Gerrard, added with an applauding emoji. “You are made for it.”
Van Dijk needs to find his form again
When the Netherlands international is at the top of the game and everything is flowing naturally for the ice-cool centre-half, then the £220k-a-week star (Spotrac) is one of the best in the world.
That went out of the window during the past campaign, as Klopp watched his side finish outside of the Champions League places.
But, perhaps, just perhaps, this new lease of responsibility being put on Van Dijk might bring his game to some much-needed life.
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