Trent Alexander-Arnold was Liverpool’s chosen one for free-kicks when he was at the club.
The England international scored 23 goals for the Reds in all competitions, eight of which were direct free-kicks.
Alexander-Arnold would’ve still been the first-choice free-kick taker at Liverpool, but he chose to leave them for Real Madrid earlier this summer.
Arne Slot now needs a successor for that role, and he may have just found one.
Virgil van Dijk scores multiple free-kicks in Liverpool training
It’s not often that you see centre-backs step up to take free-kicks.
David Luiz did it well for Chelsea many years ago, while another Brazilian who played for the Blues, Alex, was not too bad either. Former Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen was capable of the spectacular as well.
Virgil van Dijk is widely regarded as the best centre-back in the world, and his main role at Liverpool is to defend and help keep clean sheets.
However, the Dutchman used to take free-kicks when he was at Celtic, and he even converted three of them. He netted a direct free-kick for Groningen too in the 2010/11 season.
Van Dijk has never scored a free-kick for Liverpool, but that may change in the upcoming campaign.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold gone, the Reds need someone to step up, and their captain has been practising free-kicks in training – he scored a few great ones too.
Watch Van Dijk showing off his skills in the video below.
Why Virgil van Dijk previously refused to take free-kicks at Liverpool
Liverpool have won plenty of free-kicks around the box over the years.
Alexander-Arnold always fancied those, and to be fair to him, he scored a few sensational goals as well from the dead ball.
Van Dijk could’ve just asked him to step aside so that he could take one, but the Dutch international always refused for one reason – because Alexander-Arnold was better than him.
Speaking to Ben Foster on Amazon Prime Video, Van Dijk said: “Listen, people forget that we have a very good free-kicker in the team with Trent. He’s very good!
“When something is good, don’t change it that much. So, I feel like obviously you have to practice, you have to get into it. I’ve left it for now because Trent is amazing in that.
“I want him to be more consistent. He has shown with the numbers and the goals he has scored that he can be very, very good.”
With Alexander-Arnold no longer at Liverpool, don’t be surprised if Van Dijk steps up to take all the free-kicks in the upcoming season.