{"id":1166560,"date":"2026-08-24T12:14:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166560\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:14:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:14:45","slug":"virgil-van-dijk-gives-backing-to-dominik-szoboszlai-as-future-liverpool-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166560\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk gives backing to Dominik Szoboszlai as future Liverpool captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Virgil van Dijk<\/a> has signalled that he sees Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a> as his long-term successor as Liverpool <\/a>captain and said Alexander Isak<\/a> was not affected by the vitriolic reception he received on his return to Newcastle. <\/p>\n

Isak was whistled and jeered in his first match<\/a> at St James\u2019 Park since his controversial \u00a3125m move to Anfield last summer. <\/p>\n

Liverpool got a point in a 2-2 draw courtesy <\/a>of Szoboszlai\u2019s 99th-minute penalty \u2013 with the new vice-captain, rather than Isak, taking it, while the Sweden striker was quiet. <\/p>\n

But Van Dijk felt the choruses from the Newcastle fans were not the reason, saying: \u201cI wasn’t [wouldn\u2019t be] affected by it if I was him. I don’t think he was affected by it. He tried to play his game. There were good moments and there were moments he could have done better, like all of us. I don’t think that impacted him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Szoboszlai was Liverpool\u2019s player of the year last season and began the new campaign with a goal, with Van Dijk praising him for holding his nerve amid the pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took plenty already and he scored plenty,\u201d he said. \u201cNot a bad hit. He has the quality. He has shown it in the penalties he took in previous years. It was quite a high-tension penalty and it shows how good a player he is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Szoboszlai was added to Liverpool\u2019s leadership group by new head coach Andoni Iraola<\/a> after the departure of vice-captain Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah. <\/p>\n

The other three members of the group \u2013 Van Dijk, who is 35, Alisson and Joe Gomez \u2013 are in the last season of their respective contracts while Szoboszlai signed a new five-year deal. <\/p>\n

\"DominikDominik Szoboszlai scored from the spot to rescue a point for Liverpool (Owen Humphreys\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

And Van Dijk said: \u201cEvery leadership group is important. Obviously there is experience and there is someone in terms of Dom who has been the captain of his country, and that will only help him to be part of this group. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to take responsibility to take that on his shoulders and it is going to benefit us also in the long run with Szoboszlai signing a new deal. He will be here to take over.\u201d <\/p>\n

Liverpool are continuing to search for Salah\u2019s replacement and had two bids for Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh rejected last week and Van Dijk hopes for more signings. <\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cEveryone wants to see quality arrive regardless. I fully trust the club and the board to make the right decisions. That’s the only thing I can say.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"VirgilVirgil van Dijk also admitted that it will take Liverpool a while to get used to Andoni Iraola’s methods (PA)<\/p>\n

Van Dijk admitted it will take time for Liverpool to adapt to Iraola\u2019s methods and style of play. <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think it is absolutely normal in any type of profession or work that if you come in new and you have new plans and ideas that it takes a bit of time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is down to us to do it as soon as we can. We want to improve. We want to win. We want to do better. That is what we are going to try and do from tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1166561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,251751,47671,393,162,4884,44888,179,258532,47681,316238,64070,2249,10031,93,316239,16,15,1465],"class_list":["post-1166560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-club-soccer","tag-color-image","tag-england","tag-english-premier-league","tag-great-britain","tag-horizontal","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-f-c","tag-match-sport","tag-newcastle-united-f-c","tag-newcastle-upon-tyne","tag-photography","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-st-james-park-newcastle-upon-tyne","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-virgil-van-dijk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117150436682356727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1166561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}