Virgil van Dijk was a substitute in Liverpool's 6-3 Champions League win over LASK, marking the first time he has not started a European game of consequence for the club since April 2022. The defender, nursing a sore calf sustained in the weekend Premier League defeat to Manchester City, came off the bench for the first time in his 66 Champions League appearances for Liverpool, having started all previous 65.
Van Dijk surprised by bench role
The Netherlands international watched the Reds romp into a 4-0 lead at the Raiffeisen Arena with less than half an hour remaining. "I didn't expect to come on whatsoever," he said. "It was a surprise. I'm still recovering a bit. It had been a long time since I didn't start a game like that."
"I still did everything I could off the pitch to help the team. It was unusual for me (not starting) but it's part of life. I think I'll be fine for Saturday."
Workload management under Iraola
The trip to Brentford should see Van Dijk maintain his 100% appearance record in the Premier League this season, with only Alisson Becker and centre-back partner Jeremy Jacquet having featured for more minutes under Iraola. He played every minute in the Premier League and Champions League last season, and since returning from the serious knee injury that ruled him out of almost all of the 2020/21 campaign has started 145 of Liverpool's 158 top-flight fixtures.
In three of the last five seasons, no outfield Liverpool player has featured for more minutes, a workload that doesn't take into account Van Dijk playing in 63 of 68 internationals for the Netherlands during the same period. Having turned 35 during the summer, even Van Dijk acknowledges he cannot go on forever, although he readily made himself available to new Dutch national team boss Xavi and has no immediate plans for international retirement.
Future planning at centre-back
As things stand, the defender is now in the final season of his near nine-year Liverpool career with no talks having yet taken place over the possibility of a new deal once his current agreement expires at the end of the campaign. Liverpool sought to future proof their centre-back options with £60million Jeremy Jacquet brought in from Rennes even before the surprise departure of Ibrahima Konate on a free transfer to Real Madrid this summer.
Jacquet has proven an instant success unlike the previous summer's centre-back purchase Giovanni Leoni, who suffered a serious knee injury on his debut after a £26m switch from Parma and, more than a year later, remains a month away from a return to team training. With Joe Gomez and on-loan Ronald Araujo available, Iraola does have options to rotate with the latter scoring the opener when partnering Jacquet at the heart of defence at Linz in midweek.
Van Dijk was absent completely from Liverpool's last midweek game, the League Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur, and with the Reds' schedule ramping up it seems likely the Holland international will increasingly have his minutes managed. In nine games this season, Liverpool have already had six different centre-back partnerships at times during matches as Iraola looks to rotate and refresh. Nevertheless, as club captain Van Dijk will still be one of the first names on the teamsheet for the most part, but it won't be for every game as Liverpool look to get the best out of their talismanic centre-back while preparing for life without him.
