Virgil van Dijk set to BENEFIT from Trent Alexander-Arnold departure

Liverpool are getting used to the idea of life without Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right-back will be leaving at the end of the season - with Real Madrid widely tipped to become his next destination.

Trent’s departure leaves a big gap in Liverpool’s defence - hopefully to be filled by Conor Bradley on a regular basis. But the 26-year-old will also be taking with him his free-kick prowess.

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In this day and age, fewer and fewer direct free-kicks are being attempted and scored. Indeed research from the Athletic concludes that only 12 have been scored in this Premier League season - the second lowest on record - down from 41 in 2007/08.

James Ward Prowse (17), James Maddison (9), Christian Eriksen (8), Ashley Young (7), Trent (6), Willian (6) and Kevin De Bruyne (5) are the only currently active Premier League players to have scored five or more in the top flight.

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It’s a dying art. Alexander-Arnold is maybe the closest thing that Liverpool had to a set-piece specialist over the past decade or so.

Since Trent scored his first free-kick against Hoffenheim in a Champions League qualifier back in 2017, Philippe Coutinho is the only other Liverpool player to have netted a free-kick in that time frame - and that was back in December 2017.

Liverpool now WITHOUT a set-piece specialist

Trent is credited with eight overall for Liverpool although another two might be termed an umpire’s call.

One was back-heeled to him by Mohamed Salah - against Chelsea a few years back - and another sumptuous effort went in via a deflection off Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s back.

He has had a stranglehold on the direct free-kick opportunities although in recent seasons Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai have both had a go.

This season neither Trent nor the Reds have scored a direct free-kick; the last time they did so was back in April 2024 versus Fulham.

In bygone seasons they had a John Barnes, a Jamie Redknapp, a Steven Gerrard or a Luis Suarez to score a direct free-kick and Trent vanishing creates both a problem and an opportunity.

Van Dijk's hidden talent

And one man who could step up is the captain Virgil van Dijk.

“The responsibility stayed with him throughout his Liverpool career despite interest from Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who would challenge him in free-kick competitions after training sessions,” states the Athletic in an item about Alexander-Arnold’s Liverpool departure.

“When footage was released by the club’s media channels in 2020, Alexander-Arnold was annoyed because Van Dijk’s conversion rate was better.”

That stands to reason. Because believe it or not, scoring free-kicks is a hidden talent for the Dutchman and now is the time to bring it to the fore.

He’s netted FOUR free-kicks in his career to date - albeit not one for the Reds. In an unlikely outing up front for Groningen against ADO Den Haag in 2011, he scored his first senior career free-kick - one of two goals he scored that day.

Time for Van Dijk to step up

And during his two years at Celtic he scored 15 goals - THREE of which were direct free-kicks. That’s a decent strike rate.

Earlier this season the question of his free-kick capability was put to Van Dijk by former England goalkeeper Ben Foster.

Speaking on Amazon Prime YouTube when asked about if we will ever see it again, Van Dijk said: “I don’t know. Listen people forget that we have a very good free-kicker in the team with Trent.

“When something is good, don't change it that much. So I feel like obviously you have to practice, that you have to get into it and I left it for now because Trent is amazing in that, I want him to be more consistent.

“You show him the numbers and the goals he scored that he can be very, very good.”

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He admitted he wouldn’t take them as long was Trent was around. But surely with that issue resolved, it’s now time to take control.