Liverpool's Next Centre-Backs: Jacquet and Leoni's Challenge
Virgil van Dijk will not be around forever. At Anfield, that reality is starting to bite, and attention is already turning to the next guardians of Liverpool’s back line.
Two names keep coming up: Jacquet and Leoni.
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock believes they have a chance – but only that. Speaking to GOAL in association with Gambler Media, he underlined just how big the task is.
“Possibly,” he said when asked if the pair could one day fill Van Dijk’s boots. “I think the hard thing is trying to replace, obviously, a player of Van Dijk's stature.”
That’s the crux of it. You don’t really replace Van Dijk. You just hope the drop-off isn’t brutal.
Warnock has seen enough, even at this early stage, to understand why Liverpool are excited. Leoni, in particular, has caught the eye quickly.
“The signs were promising, both from Leoni, even after one game,” he said, pointing to the defender’s reputation in Italy. “The talk around Serie A and how he performed in Italy.”
Promise, though, is the easy part. Living with the weight of expectation at a club like Liverpool is something else entirely.
“There will always become a pressure once you get to a certain level,” Warnock warned. “There will be more talk, talking about Van Dijk and can they be the heir to the throne, of taking over Van Dijk?”
That conversation will not go away. Every header missed, every duel lost, every goal conceded will be measured against the standard the Dutchman set.
For Warnock, the key lies in what happens over the next few years, not the next few weeks.
“It's just about how they progress from now until probably around about 26, 27,” he said. “When you learn so much about the game and you get better at understanding.”
Centre-backs mature late. The position demands scars, not just talent. Mistakes, lessons, repetition.
“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.”
So are Jacquet and Leoni the chosen heirs? Warnock refuses to rubber-stamp that idea.
“So it's very difficult to say whether they're going to be the successors because they're on the right trajectory,” he said. “But there's so many things that can come into place, like injuries and lack of form, the shirt being too heavy at times, where the club's actually at.”
That last point matters. Context made Van Dijk. Liverpool signed him at the perfect moment.
“When you think about when Virgil van Dijk came into the Liverpool team,” Warnock recalled, “it was almost him and Alisson that were the final two pieces of the jigsaw. And it slotted him perfectly into a great system, a great team.”
Van Dijk walked into a side ready to dominate. A clear identity. A settled core. A manager at his peak.
Jacquet and Leoni, if they are to grow into that space, will not have the same luxury.
“At the moment, Liverpool are in a transitional phase,” Warnock said, “and that's difficult to play in at times.”
So the challenge is double-edged: develop into top-level centre-backs while the club around you reshapes itself.
Van Dijk once arrived as the missing piece. Jacquet and Leoni, if they make it, will have to help build the puzzle from scratch.
