{"id":665429,"date":"2026-02-19T11:02:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=665429"},"modified":"2026-02-19T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:06:08","slug":"virgil-van-dijk-backs-dominik-szoboszlai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/19\/virgil-van-dijk-backs-dominik-szoboszlai\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk Backs Teammate as Future Leader of Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool\u2019s season continues to be chaotic, but the Reds are still in with a good chance of finishing in the top four. The beginning of the season was understandably difficult for Arne Slot\u2019s team, following the tragic passing of Diogo Jota. The squad suffered, losing confidence and form. The situation has improved since then, and Liverpool<\/span><\/a> appears focused on achieving a top-four finish. They recently progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup and are in the last-16 of the Champions League. The Reds also won their last Premier League game, a 1-0 victory away to Sunderland. Virgil van Dijk<\/span><\/a> <\/span>scored the winning goal, and recently backed Dominik Szoboszlai to inherit the captain\u2019s armband from himself.<\/p>\n

Van Dijk praises impact of Dominik Szoboszlai<\/h2>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Van Dijk Lauds Teammate<\/h3>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all on the manager I think. I don\u2019t know. Yeah,\u201d was Van Dijk\u2019s response when asked whether Szoboszlai could eventually inherit the armband.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he has been very good. Also a player who I think can still make the next step in terms of being a leader for this team.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: <\/span>Liverpool Boss Discusses Two Players Who Are Very Important\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts by leading by example and that\u2019s something he has done so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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

Dominik Szoboszlai Continues to Impress<\/h3>\n

The 25-year-old Hungarian international has enjoyed an impressive campaign thus far, showcasing invaluable versatility, even filling in at right-back. He has scored 10 goals and provided seven assists in 35 games in all competitions.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: <\/span>Arne Slot Names Three Clear Priorities for Liverpool<\/a><\/p>\n

His ability at set-pieces cannot be ignored, nor can his exceptional work rate. His impressive ability to play to a high standard in a variety of positions is what makes him such an invaluable leader for Arne Slot\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

IMAGO \/ Propaganda Photo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liverpool\u2019s season continues to be chaotic, but the Reds are still in with a good chance of finishing in the top four. The beginning of the season was understandably difficult for Arne Slot\u2019s team, following the tragic passing of Diogo Jota. The squad suffered, losing confidence and form. The situation has improved since then, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":646955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,16,3],"tags":[4208,756],"class_list":["post-665429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-dominik-szoboszlai","tag-virgil-van-dijk"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665429"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665433,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665429\/revisions\/665433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}