Virgil van Dijk speaks out on Trent Alexander-Arnold's Liverpool future - 'if he decides to leave'

Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool with Virgil van Dijk

Not for the first time this season, it was left to the Liverpool captain to make a timely intervention.

As Trent Alexander-Arnold loitered among his team-mates applauding the away end after the final whistle on Sunday afternoon, he was given a friendly shove by Virgil van Dijk.

Given the mixed reception the right-back's introduction from the bench during the second half had received from the travelling Kop - primarily positive but with an audible smattering of boos - his seeming reluctance to command a solo salute was understandable.

Trent though, need not have worried as the Liverpool support responded with a huge ovation for the player who marked his return from injury with the match winning goal

Van Dijk said

“We forget that we are dealing with a human being,"

"Sometimes he goes through so many moments in the last couple of months and everyone will have an opinion on the way he’s obviously been.

"But for us as players, we want to win games and he's been important throughout the whole season.

“He's been important for all those years that we have been together and there's still games to go and then we to need to have the best Trent Alexander-Arnold and what happens in the future will happen, that's life and football and we'll see.”

Alexander-Arnold, of course, is the sole remaining Liverpool player set to be out of contract in the summer

Both Van Dijk and Salah made clear they wanted to stay, the right-back has consistently kept his own counsel on the subject

Van Dijk added

“Whatever may happen in the future for him, that's something that he has to resolve with himself and his family”

“But he's a Liverpool player at this point and he's important for our team.”

“He has been important throughout the whole season and on Sunday he came back from the injury, a long one, and that's what I'm happy about.

“He's back in and among us, he's important and we have still five more games after this so hopefully he can be important for the rest of the games.”

"Since I've joined the club, he has been a fantastic, fantastic player and there's a lot of good things that he will always be remembered for if he decides to leave.

“But, listen, at this point we don't know as a group what's going to happen."

On whether he has asked Alexander-Arnold about his future intentions,

Van Dijk adds: "I think he was under a lot of pressure already so there’s no point for me to put him on the spot. The full focus was for him to get back to full fitness, be important for the remaining games of the season. And he showed (on Sunday) that he was."