Liverpool's Search for Van Dijk's Successor: Jacquet and Leoni

At Anfield, the future is already being measured against a giant.

Virgil van Dijk will not patrol Liverpool’s back line forever, and the search for the next defensive pillar has begun. Inside the club, long-term plans are being drawn up. Outside, the conversation is already circling two names: Jacquet and Leoni.

Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock believes they might just be the ones to grow into those daunting boots – but he is in no rush to crown them.

“Possibly,” he told GOAL, when asked if the pair could be the men to eventually replace Van Dijk. That single word carried both encouragement and a warning. Replacing a defender of Van Dijk’s stature is not a simple succession plan. It is a process, and a brutal one at that.

Leoni has made only the briefest of impressions in a Liverpool shirt, yet his reputation arrived ahead of him. Performances in Serie A, the noise from Italy, the way he handled himself there – all of it helped build the idea that he could be ready for the Premier League stage. Jacquet, too, sits on that same rising curve, his development tracked with interest.

Promise, though, is only the opening act.

As Warnock points out, once a player reaches a certain level, the scrutiny changes. The questions sharpen. Every solid display becomes another data point in the debate: are they the heir to Van Dijk’s throne? Every mistake becomes a headline. The comparison never really stops.

For a centre-half, that examination cuts straight into the fundamentals of the job. You must read the game better. You must live in the right positions, see danger before it forms, learn when to engage and when to hold. Those skills rarely peak at 21 or 22. They harden with age, with minutes, with scars.

Warnock points to that window around 26 or 27, when defenders often start to truly understand the game. That is when patterns become clearer, when experience turns into anticipation. Jacquet and Leoni are still on the road to that point. Their trajectory looks good, but the journey is long and unforgiving.

Plenty can derail it. Injuries that steal rhythm. Dips in form that test confidence. The weight of the shirt itself. Some players pull on a Liverpool jersey and grow. Others feel the history on their shoulders and shrink. The state of the club matters too. A defender stepping into a stable, well-drilled side faces a very different challenge from one thrown into a team still trying to work itself out.

Warnock has seen the contrast up close. When Van Dijk arrived at Liverpool, he did not walk into a rebuild. He walked into a near-finished masterpiece. Alongside Alisson, he became one of the final pieces of a jigsaw that Jürgen Klopp had been assembling for years. The system was clear. The team was strong. Van Dijk slotted in and elevated everything.

Today’s Liverpool looks different. The squad is evolving, the identity being refreshed. It is a transitional phase, and that is rarely a comfortable environment for centre-backs. Gaps appear where there used to be cover. Partnerships change. Mistakes get exposed, not absorbed.

So when the question is thrown forward – are Jacquet and Leoni the true successors to Van Dijk? – Warnock resists the temptation to give a simple answer. They are on the right path, he says. The signs are promising. The tools are there.

But Liverpool’s next great defender will not be defined by a glowing scouting report or an encouraging debut. He will be defined by what happens over the next few years, by how he survives the pressure, by how he adapts to a club that never stands still.

Van Dijk once arrived as the missing piece. Whoever comes next will have to be something different: a cornerstone for a new Liverpool, built in a new era, under a very familiar weight of expectation.