Replacing Virgil van Dijk: Can Jacquet and Leoni Step Up?

At Anfield, the question is no longer whether Virgil van Dijk can be replaced. It’s who dares to try.

Liverpool’s long-term planning has already pushed two names to the front of that conversation: Jacquet and Leoni. Young, highly rated, and walking straight into the shadow of one of the defining defenders of the modern era.

Former Reds defender Stephen Warnock knows exactly how heavy that shirt can feel. Speaking to GOAL, he didn’t dress it up.

“Possibly,” he said when asked if Jacquet and Leoni can be the men to eventually fill Van Dijk’s boots. One word, but loaded. Because replacing a player of Van Dijk’s stature is not a straight swap. It’s a generational shift.

Leoni has barely had time to unpack. Even so, Warnock has seen enough to understand why Liverpool moved.

“The signs were promising, both from Leoni, even after one game,” he noted, pointing to the buzz that followed the defender out of Serie A and the way he handled himself in Italy. The reputation is there. The footage backs it up. Now comes the hard part: living up to it in a league that exposes every flaw.

This is where the pressure bites. The moment a defender at Liverpool looks composed, assured, dominant in the air, the comparisons start. Van Dijk’s name hangs over every interception, every duel, every misstep.

“There will be more talk,” Warnock said. “Talking about Van Dijk and can they be the heir to the throne, of taking over Van Dijk?” That’s the narrative that will stalk both Jacquet and Leoni. Not just whether they are good enough for Liverpool, but whether they are good enough to follow *him*.

Warnock’s timeline is clear. For centre-backs, the real education comes in the mid-to-late twenties.

“It’s just about how they progress from now until probably around about 26, 27,” he explained, “when you learn so much about the game and you get better at understanding.”

That’s when positioning becomes instinct. When you stop chasing the game and start dictating it. When a centre-half stops relying purely on physical gifts and starts winning matches with their brain.

“And that's essentially what you have to do when you're a centre-half,” Warnock added. “You've got to read the game better, you've got to get yourself in better positions, and that's part of the process.”

Liverpool’s hopeful heirs are on the right trajectory. That much he accepts. But trajectory is not destiny.

Warnock reeled off the pitfalls: injuries that stall momentum, dips in form that suddenly stretch into months, the weight of expectation turning the shirt into armour you can’t quite move in. Even the state of the club itself matters. A defender stepping into a settled, confident side faces a very different task to one thrown into a team still working out what it wants to be.

That contrast is at the heart of his warning.

“When you think about when Virgil van Dijk came into the Liverpool team,” Warnock said, “it was almost him and Alisson that were the final two pieces of the jigsaw.”

Van Dijk walked into a machine already whirring under Jürgen Klopp. A clear identity. A clear structure. A team on the brink of greatness that needed a leader at the back and a goalkeeper behind him. They arrived, and everything clicked.

“It slotted him perfectly into a great system, a great team,” Warnock recalled.

Jacquet and Leoni do not have that luxury. Not yet.

“At the moment, Liverpool are in a transitional phase,” he said, “and that's difficult to play in at times.”

Transitions are messy. Lines shift, partnerships change, the style evolves. For a young centre-back, that means less protection, more exposure, more nights where you’re firefighting rather than commanding.

So can Jacquet and Leoni grow into the roles that Van Dijk and Alisson once stepped into so seamlessly? Warnock won’t deal in guarantees. He sees promise. He sees the right curve. He also sees the chaos that can derail even the most carefully drawn plan.

The boots are there to be filled. The question is whether Liverpool’s next generation can grow quickly enough, and stay strong enough, to walk in them while the club reshapes itself around them.