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Despite having proven his ability as a free-kick taker at other clubs, Virgil van Dijk has explained why he has never been on regular set-pieces duties for Liverpool.
During his time at FC Groningen, Celtic and Southampton, Van Dijk showed his prowess from distance, with four of his first 22 goals at club level coming from set-pieces.
It has been a mystery to many fans, then, why the Dutchman has stayed off free-kick duty at Liverpool.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and, more recently, Dominik Szoboszlai have instead assumed the responsibility with direct free-kicks – to mixed success.
Speaking to Ben Foster in an interview with Amazon Prime, the Liverpool captain has explained why he does not put himself forward.
“Listen, people forget that we have a very good free-kick taker in the team, with Trent. He’s very good – I think you remember!” he told Foster, who conceded an Alexander-Arnold free-kick while playing for Watford in 2018.
“When something is good, don’t change it that much.
“Obviously you have to practise that, obviously you have to get into that and I left it for now, because Trent is amazing at that.
“I want him to be more consistent, but he’s shown with the numbers and the goals that he’s scored that he can be very, very good.”
Alexander-Arnold is undoubtedly a strong free-kick taker, with 10 goals of his 23 career goals coming from direct free-kicks, while another came via a quick layoff.
But Van Dijk’s ability is also useful, and given he is almost always on the pitch, it is a surprise he has not stepped up more often.
Clearly, that is unlikely to change any time soon, with the 33-year-old instead putting his faith in Alexander-Arnold to improve on his shooting from set-pieces.
Perhaps a time will come for the captain to take up free-kick duties, with it evident he has the quality to do so.
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