Replacing Virgil van Dijk: Who Will Step Up for Liverpool?

Virgil van Dijk will leave a hole at the heart of Liverpool’s defence whenever his Anfield reign ends. The question already hangs in the air: who dares step into those boots?

Two names keep surfacing. Jacquet and Leoni.

Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock believes the pair have a chance – but warns that replacing a generational figure like Van Dijk is a different kind of challenge altogether.

“Possibly,” Warnock told GOAL when asked if the duo could be long-term heirs to the Dutchman. “I think the hard thing is trying to replace, obviously, a player of Van Dijk's stature.”

The club’s recruitment team have sketched out the future. Leoni has impressed early, with only a fleeting Anfield appearance so far, yet his reputation from Serie A and the way he handled Italian football have turned heads. Jacquet, too, sits in that conversation as Liverpool plot what comes next.

The early signs encourage Warnock, but he knows how quickly the narrative can turn once expectations bite.

“The signs were promising, both from Leoni, even after one game, but the talk around Serie A and how he performed in Italy,” he said. “But there will always become a pressure once you get to a certain level.”

That pressure comes with a name attached. Van Dijk’s.

As soon as a young centre-back strings together a few strong displays, the comparisons start. The “next Van Dijk” tag. The “heir to the throne.” Warnock has seen what that weight can do.

“There will be more talk, talking about Van Dijk and can they be the heir to the throne, of taking over Van Dijk?” he said. “And it's just about how they progress from now until probably around about 26, 27, when you learn so much about the game and you get better at understanding.”

For Warnock, those mid-20s years are decisive. That is when a centre-half really starts to see the game in slow motion, when the chaos in front of them begins to make sense.

“And that's essentially what you have to do when you're a centre-half,” he explained. “You've got to read the game better, you've got to get yourself in better positions, and that's part of the process.”

Trajectory matters. But it is not everything.

“So it's very difficult to say whether they're going to be the successors because they're on the right trajectory,” Warnock cautioned. “But there's so many things that can come into place, like injuries and lack of form, the shirt being too heavy at times, where the club's actually at.”

That last point cuts to the heart of it. Context.

When Van Dijk arrived, Liverpool were ready-made contenders. Jürgen Klopp’s system was fully formed, the squad finely balanced. Van Dijk and Alisson arrived as the final pieces, not the first bricks.

“When you think about when Virgil van Dijk came into the Liverpool team, it was almost him and Alisson that were the final two pieces of the jigsaw,” Warnock said. “And it slotted him perfectly into a great system, a great team.”

Jacquet and Leoni will not walk into that same environment. Liverpool are reshaping, recalibrating, edging into a new era.

“At the moment, Liverpool are in a transitional phase and that's difficult to play in at times,” Warnock admitted.

So the path is clear but steep. The club can plan, scout, and project all they like. The real test will come under the Anfield lights, with the shirt heavy, the comparisons loud, and the memory of Van Dijk still towering over the back line.