Jurgen Klopp has lauded the leadership qualities of Virgil van Dijk, but stressed that Jordan Henderson will remain Liverpool captain for the foreseeable future.
Last week saw Van Dijk named captain of Netherlands, with Ronald Koeman believing the centre-back to be a “natural leader.”
While Klopp says Van Dijk has become an integral part of the Liverpool dressing room following his £75 million move from Southampton in January (a world-record for a defender), he insists that the captaincy will not be removed from Henderson, who has held the duties since replacing Steven Gerrard in 2015.
“What we need at Liverpool are these kind of players who are leaders,” the Liverpool manager said. “Hendo and Virgil are leaders and that’s cool.
“But I am not half as much interested in the captaincy role as you all are. I’ve learned a lot in the last few days about the captaincy role in cricket, but I don’t really know what they’re talking about.
“Hendo is doing an incredible job here. If you ask whether I am thinking about giving the armband to someone else then no.
“Do you need more than one player who feels responsible for the whole group? Yes of course. We have them and Virgil is one of them.
“It’s nice for him that he can be the captain of Holland. But there won’t only be fantastic days for him in that role. Captaincy feels like a joy in the first moment and then from that moment on it’s only work.
“I don’t think if I asked in the dressing room ‘who wants to be captain next year’ that 28 arms would go up. It’s a job to do and it’s not better paid, you don’t get extra money for doing it. There are a lot more duties and not a lot more rights to be honest.”
Van Dijk marked his second game as full-time Netherlands skipper by scoring his first international goal in a 3-0 win over Portugal on Monday.
He has made 10 appearances for Liverpool since arriving at the club, helping the Reds keep clean sheets in four of them.
Glenn is ESPN FC’s Liverpool correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter: @GlennPrice94.
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