“If it was that easy then open a market for leaders and we will buy all of them and then our problems are solved” — Jürgen Klopp, February 2017.

The Liverpool manager was right and wrong. Whenever the criticism was aired that Liverpool lacked balls, for want of a better word, in certain matches, the German would trot out the line that leaders emerge and could not simply be parachuted into a team.

It always felt a bit of a flimsy stance. Then, he spent £75 million to make Virgil van Dijk the most expensive defender in the world and watched the Holland centre back tear a hole in his argument.

Van Dijk has brought leadership to Liverpool but several other players have also come out of their shells SCOTT HEPPELL/REUTERS

Van Dijk has immediately added stature and presence to Liverpool’s line-up. You look from