Virgil van Dijk has identified Dominik Szoboszlai as a player with the attributes to wear the Liverpool armband in time, while stressing that any decision rests with manager Arne Slot. The current captain made clear he would welcome Szoboszlai taking on a greater leadership role.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously [Szoboszlai] has been very good,\u201d the current skipper said. \u201c[He is] also a player I think can still make the next step in terms of being a leader for this team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts by leading by example and that\u2019s something he has done so far this season. But also everything around it; there is still progress to be made and that\u2019s a good thing in my opinion so hopefully he will be very important for the years to come at Liverpool .\u201d<\/p>\n
Those comments arrive against a backdrop of transfer speculation linking the midfielder with Real Madrid, although Szoboszlai\u2019s agent has insisted there is no intention to look elsewhere than Liverpool. The player, who arrived from RB Leipzig just under three years ago, is 25 and now moves into the final two seasons of the contract he signed on arrival. Those remaining years are typically when renewal discussions begin.<\/p>\n
The importance of what comes next in Szoboszlai\u2019s career is obvious: his next contract will largely determine where he spends his peak. While the Reds would not necessarily need to offer the captaincy as part of a new deal, the prospect of long-term leadership at Anfield could factor in any negotiations.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai is not new to leading. He has captained Hungary since November 2022, having first worn the armband at U17 level and doing so shortly after his 22nd birthday. Within Liverpool\u2019s senior squad, obvious successors to Van Dijk are limited. Vice-captain Andy Robertson is unlikely to outlast his longtime teammate. Alisson Becker\u2019s deal runs to the same expiry as Van Dijk\u2019s in 2027, though the goalkeeper is just over a year younger and could reasonably remain longer. Alexis Mac Allister is at a similar career stage to Szoboszlai but lacks the same leadership experience, while Curtis Jones is the only Liverpudlian in the established first team squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk says Szoboszlai can grow into Liverpool captain; contract talks are approaching crucial year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[983,299,1006],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-agents","tag-arne-slot","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}