Virgil van Dijk 'very proud' to be named new Liverpool captain after Jordan Henderson's Saudi Arabia move

Virgil van Dijk has been named as Liverpool’s new captain following the departure of Jordan Henderson.

Netherlands skipper Van Dijk takes over the armband at Anfield after Henderson left to join Al-Ettifaq.

Trent Alexander-Arnold will be vice-captain after James Milner’s transfer to Brighton.

Van Dijk told the club website: “A really proud day for me, for my wife, for my kids, my family. It’s been a special feeling and I can’t really describe it at this point. But it’s something that I’m really, really proud of.

“Obviously I’m captain of Holland, that was already such a huge honour, a proud moment as well. But also to be the captain of Liverpool Football Club is something that I can’t describe at this point.

“It’s just something that makes me very proud and I will do everything in my power and what I can do to make everyone proud and happy with me and the football club.”

Van Dijk has made 222 appearances for Liverpool since joining from Southampton in January 2018.

He has helped the club win the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, and has become one of the most integral players in the team.

But having missed out on any silverware last season, Van Dijk is eager for Liverpool to return to their best again.

“It has been a very disappointing year last year,” he said.

“It was actually not a bad run-in. Obviously in the end we didn’t achieve anything we hoped to achieve and that was very disappointing.

“Then you’re going on a very short summer holiday and you reflect on the season you’ve had, personally and as a team, and it hurts. It hurts a lot. You have pride as a human being and you feel like you could have done a lot better, you could have done a lot more consistently.

“I think that was a big thing that was missing: the consistent level that we showed over the last couple of years was missing. And obviously everyone wants to make this right. We all feel we have to do this together again each and every day, each and every game, with the fans as well.

“Obviously it has been quite an interesting summer with players obviously leaving and new players coming in, this little transition that is going on. We also have to be a bit patient but we want to be there and we want to show what we’re capable of because we have a fantastic group of players, staff, fans, stadium, we shouldn’t even discuss that.

“But we can be up there again. It’s all about doing it together with the consistency and hopefully we can show it.”

Liverpool start their Premier League season against Chelsea on August 13.

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