The defenders has been appointed as Liverpool’s third captain in the last 20 years
Virgil van Dijk walks into the room clutching his mobile phone, which fittingly has an orange protective cover, the colour of the Netherlands kit. The Dutchman scrolls but is not looking for the latest transfer gossip. “If you follow social media you get dizzy with the names,” says the new Liverpool captain.
The club’s bids for Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia have dominated the news over the past week, but it is not in the nature of Van Dijk to get too flustered. Just as he glides around the pitch, he is cool and composed as Liverpool’s third captain in the last 20 years.
Rather than replicate Jordan Henderson or Steven Gerrard, Van Dijk will bring his own style of leadership to Anfield. He is from a nation of football-talkers but will choose his time carefully for when a dressing-room speech is needed. After wearing the armband for his country, he knows he needs to be available to his team-mates.
And while he may not be a natural ranter and raver that is not to say the disappointments of last season did not hurt. Fifth in the table represented an end-of-season recovery but still means Thursday nights in the Europa League instead of playing among the elite where Van Dijk has been used to.