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Virgil van Dijk’s new Liverpool contract is expected to be announced imminently - Getty Images/Paul Ellis
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk says he is expecting a ‘big summer’ of transfer activity at Anfield as the club builds on their increasingly likely league title success.
Arne Slot’s side need two more wins to guarantee a 20th championship for the club, but plans are already advanced to evolve the squad in the event of a title defence.
Van Dijk will be part of that future as the formalities of his new two-year deal are expected to be completed by the end of this week, with Mohamed Salah having committed the rest of his peak years to Liverpool. A formal announcement on Van Dijk’s deal is delayed in part because the skipper wants the main focus of this week to be Tuesday’s 36th anniversary of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster, when 97 Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
After scoring the winning goal against West Ham United on Sunday, which put Liverpool on the brink of the title, Van Dijk said he was excited that there is more room for improvement in a team 13 points ahead of its nearest rivals, especially as Slot has not fully realised his vision for the team.
“Liverpool should be able to challenge for titles in the upcoming years. Whatever happens in terms of players going out, players coming in, I think it should be a big summer,” said Van Dijk. “I think they’re planning to make it a big summer, so we all have to trust the board as a Liverpool-connected fan to do the right job.”
Van Dijk says it is a credit to Slot that he has got so much out of the team in his debut campaign. “I think we 100 per cent can improve. We shouldn’t forget the quality that the Premier League possesses, especially this season, in my opinion,” he said.
“It’s incredible how everyone can beat everyone. But if you take it all the way back to last summer, I didn’t have a proper pre-season. I think I came in on the Monday before we played Sevilla. I played 90 minutes straight away, then the following week it was Ipswich and then you’re just back into it.
“You don’t have time to work on what the manager really wants in terms of a training camp. This year, there is a training camp and there is time for the team to work on what the manager wants and I think that will then improve the team.
“There are still so many things to improve. Even if you look at other results over the last couple of weeks, Brentford got a draw at Arsenal. I’ve heard Chelsea-Ipswich was a draw. We obviously lost against Fulham last week, so we can’t forget that either. But a proper pre-season would definitely help the club in order to be even more consistent than we already have been.”
Liverpool’s big summer and key areas Slot must address
Defence
If, as expected, Trent Alexander-Arnold signs for Real Madrid, Liverpool’s right-back options as it stands will be Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez and Jarell Quansah. The latter duo are first and foremost centre-backs, so the club will be mindful of expecting Bradley to play more than 50 games.
Similarly, at left-back, Andy Robertson will look a different player if he is not expected to start every week, Kostas Tsimikas having remained a deputy rather than a player capable of becoming first choice. Ideally, Liverpool will sign versatile defenders who operate at centre-back or full-back, and someone with the capacity to match Robertson’s excellence of the past eight years.
Midfield
Liverpool tried and failed to sign a No 6 last summer, consequently reinventing Ryan Gravenberch, who has been a sensation. However, the Dutchman has been so essential to Arne Slot’s system that he could never be left out and in the last few weeks, he has not been as sharp.
Slot evidently sees the popular Wataru Endo as a different profile of anchorman, so the manager will be seeking more ball players to give him the option of rotating more often. How many he can add will depend on the future of Endo and Harvey Elliott, and whether they are happy as substitutes moving forward.
Attack
Slot has been blessed with options as Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez have been part of a rotation process alongside Mohamed Salah. Slot’s only signing, Federico Chiesa, has been limited to cameos.
Much will depend on the future of Núñez this summer, with the Uruguayan having previously been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia. Liverpool have been scouting several No 9s and wide attackers and their data department will be crunching the numbers to see who, if anyone, is better than what they currently have.
Slot recently observed that “Liverpool are not the type of side which blows teams away with three goals in the first 25 minutes”. He will be looking for more killers up front who can do exactly that, so that their periods of control yield more goals.
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