‘Complete midfielder’… Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool have a player who can do it all

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Virgil van Dijk has claimed that Liverpool have the ‘complete midfielder’ within their squad.

The Reds’ midfield was bolstered this summer with the signing of four new players. So far, all have proven to be good additions, with Dominik Szoboszlai perhaps the man catching the eye the most.

But despite all the success of the shiny new quartet, Van Dijk has suggested that one of the players already at Jurgen Klopp’s disposal is the best of the bunch.

Asked to pick a midfielder for a Liverpool based five-a-side team on the Sorare YouTube channel, the Reds captain went with one Thiago Alcantara.

“I’m going to go for Thiago,” Virgil conceded. “I think he’s the most complete midfielder for my five-a-side team.

“What a player,” agreed Cody Gakpo.

Liverpool waiting for ‘complete’ Thiago

With half of the season now behind us, we’re still waiting to see a first glimpse of Thiago in 2023/24. However, by the sounds of Klopp yesterday, there could soon be some good news in that respect.

“Thiago is actually in a very good moment,” the manager said during his pre-Newcastle press conference. “We just have to make sure we don’t use him too early.

“There were days he could easily have trained but it’s about how can he be back then in the long-term. That’s what we’re working on.”

Fingers crossed that having been out since April with what appears to be a hip issue, Thiago is now nearing a return.

It’s also interesting to note Klopp’s comment about making sure the 32-year-old is fit in the ‘long-term.’ With his contract up at the end of the season, perhaps that’s a suggestion that Thiago still has a future at Liverpool beyond 2024.

Looking at Van Dijk’s comments here, you’d imagine that the captain would be happy to hear that that’s the case.

Even with all of their new signings, there’s still an argument that Thiago is in fact Liverpool’s best midfielder. The prospect of him slotting in beside Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and the rest is a mouth-watering one.

We haven’t seen his ‘complete’ capabilities too often since his arrival at Anfield in 2020. But with Liverpool involved in a title race, maybe Thiago can just tip the balance in the Reds favour. Virgil certainly seems to think so, and we’d be minded to agree.