‘The most important…’ – John Barnes names one player Liverpool simply can’t afford to lose | OneFootball

John Barnes has claimed that Liverpool would struggle to ‘cope’ if they were to lose one member of Arne Slot’s current squad in the next few months.

The January transfer window came and went without any new faces at Anfield, and without any announcements relating to new contracts for Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, whose current deals all expire in June.

Speculation has been rife for some time as to whether some or all of that trio will leave the club at the end of this season, and ‘Digger’ has named the one player they can least afford to lose in the summer.

Barnes: Liverpool can’t afford to lose Van Dijk

Speaking at a LiveScore live fan event in Liverpool, Barnes told the PA news agency (via The Independent): “We want them all to stay, but if you were to put them in order, I would say Virgil is the most important. I don’t think we could cope with losing him.

“In terms of importance, Virgil is most important. It would be great to have all three of them and the club have no control of that.”

(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Hard to disagree with Barnes

Every Liverpool fan would probably have their own view as to the order of priority which should be assigned to renewing the trio’s contracts, although we’d suggest that most would agree with Barnes when he says that he wants all three to still be at Anfield in six months’ time.

There’s a strong case to be made for Van Dijk being the most urgent of those to be tied down, and that’s without being disrespectful to Salah and Trent, both of whom are also crucial to Slot’s side.

Even with four senior centre-backs in the squad, it’d be asking a lot of the other three to step up and fill the leadership void that the captain’s departure would create, and nor does it help that Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez have both had more than their fair share of injury problems.

Trent has Conor Bradley as a more than capable deputy at right-back, while Liverpool have a formidable attack even when Salah’s incredible scoring output is discounted, although his goal tally would be incredibly difficult for anyone to try and emulate.

With Van Dijk turning 34 in July, the Reds won’t have him for a great deal longer even if he were to sign a new contract, but his performance this season suggest that he could keep going at an elite level for a few more years. Let’s hope he does that at Anfield and not elsewhere!