Van Dijk admits new Liverpool defensive partnership with Jacquet and Araujo needs time to click

Virgil van Dijk has conceded that forging a genuine defensive partnership with Liverpool’s two summer arrivals, Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo, will require patience, with the club’s central defence reshaped significantly before the new Premier League season.

The overhaul was triggered by Ibrahima Konate’s departure following an inconsistent campaign, compounded by persistent fitness problems for Joe Gomez and Giovani Leoni. Liverpool responded with a £60 million move for Jacquet in the winter window, though a season-ending injury delayed his debut until Sunday’s 2-0 friendly victory over Como, where the 21-year-old impressed across a 45-minute display and scored the second goal. Araujo, the former Barcelona captain who arrived on loan with an option to buy just a week ago, also caught the eye on his own debut.

“I won’t say it’s the only way, but games are totally different than training,” said Van Dijk. “Jeremy’s English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald’s, but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers, we can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations. But it’s pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. That’s absolutely normal, but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible.”

Jacquet is expected to start at Newcastle this weekend, a fixture that will also serve as the first competitive test for new head coach Andoni Iraola. The Spaniard, who replaced Arne Slot after his two-year spell, is aiming to restore the high-tempo pressing identity associated with the Klopp era — though he notably admitted earlier in pre-season that his players were unable to sustain full intensity for more than 30 minutes.

Van Dijk addressed that directly, arguing that no side in world football can press at maximum output for a full 90 minutes. “Obviously you’re going to have some moments where players get to a position where we’re going to be a bit tired and then it’s down to us to make sure that we are compact and find the right moment to press again,” he said. “If you do that at the right time then you don’t need to run as much as we sometimes do.”

Deploying Dominik Szoboszlai in a deeper midfield role alongside Ryan Gravenberch has helped create space for Florian Wirtz to operate as a number 10, but Liverpool head into the season light in both midfield and attack. Mohamed Salah is absent for the first time in nine years, while Hugo Ekitike remains sidelined as he recovers from Achilles tendon surgery.