Virgil van Dijk drops verdict on Liverpool’s new-look defence after major summer overhaul

Virgil van Dijk has acknowledged that establishing an understanding with new defensive arrivals Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo will take time following a major overhaul of Liverpool’s central defence this summer.

The restructuring was prompted by Ibrahima Konate’s departure over the summer after an inconsistent season alongside Van Dijk in a disappointing title defence, coupled with persistent fitness issues for Joe Gomez and Giovani Leoni which forced the club to strengthen.

A £60 million move for Jacquet was completed late in the winter transfer window, though a season-ending injury delayed his debut until Sunday’s 2-0 friendly win over Como.

The 21-year-old put in a strong 45-minute display and scored the second goal before making way for Araujo. The former Barcelona captain, who arrived a week ago on loan with an option to buy, also impressed on his debut.

Jacquet is expected to start at Newcastle this weekend, with Van Dijk acknowledging that match conditions are essential for building a genuine partnership.

“I won’t say it’s the only way, but games are totally different than training,” said the Netherlands captain. “Jeremy’s English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald’s, but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers, we can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations.

“But it’s pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. That’s absolutely normal, but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible.”

The upcoming fixture at St James’ Park will mark the first test for new head coach Andoni Iraola as he seeks to reinstate the high-tempo style associated with Jurgen Klopp following Arne Slot’s two-year spell.

Earlier in pre-season, Iraola made the surprising admission that his players were unable to run for more than 30 minutes.

Deploying Dominik Szoboszlai in a deeper midfield role alongside Ryan Gravenberch to allow Florian Wirtz to play as a number 10 has helped the process, but Liverpool still appear light in midfield and attack. They will be without Mohamed Salah for the first time in nine years and Hugo Ekitike, who is recovering from Achilles tendon surgery.

“What I see is that no team in world football can play full intensity for 90 minutes,” added Van Dijk.

“Obviously you’re going to have some moments where players get to a position where we’re going be a bit tired and then it’s down to us to make sure that we are compact and find the right moment to press again.

“Obviously everyone’s eager to go and to press and keep their intensity up, but it’s a team game and we need everyone together in order to be able to do that.

“That goes in phases through the game, but if you do that at the right time then you don’t need to run as much as we sometimes do.

“But it’s a process and we’re working on that. (Against Como) there was definitely improvement.”