If an embattled Trent Alexander-Arnold was to personally request someone to defend his corner, there are few better equipped to do so than Virgil van Dijk.
Alexander-Arnold is currently in the eye of the media storm, with much of the focus unfairly shifting solely on to the right-back after a sluggish start from Liverpool to their 2022/23 campaign. The attention was significantly ramped up during the international break when England boss Gareth Southgate declined the chance to utilise the Reds defender in either of their Nations League Matches with Italy and Germany.
It leaves his chances of a seat on the plane to Qatar for November's World Cup looking slim and the eyeballs were once again trained on Alexander-Arnold at the top of the week when Gary Neville dedicated a portion of Sky Sports' Monday Night Football coverage to the topic of the 23-year-old's defensive frailties.
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After a 3-3 home draw with Brighton when Alexander-Arnold endured a particularly difficult afternoon at Anfield that was perhaps to be expected, but even if Neville's critique of the Reds star's all-round game was even-handed and fair, Jurgen Klopp used some of his pre-match programme notes for the game against Rangers to air his feelings on overly focusing on the performances of the individual as opposed to the team.
"This is a team issue and not an individual one," wrote Klopp in a general sense. "I know there is always a fascination with how individual players perform and if I'm honest sometimes the scrutiny goes too far, but I have been in football long enough to know the best way of getting individuals to play well is by getting the team to play well.
"Defenders are better when the team defends well, attackers are better when the team attacks well. This is why I always say everyone is responsible for everything. I say it because it is true and also because it is necessary. I know people outside the club will focus on individuals but we will always concentrate on the collective and the things that we can do together that will allow us to improve."
Curling home a beauty of a free-kick inside eight minutes before keeping a Champions League clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Rangers on Tuesday night will have been an ideal riposte to those who believe their long-term insistence around Alexander-Arnold's perceived weaknesses are finally being proven correct.
“People say things but for me, it’s about going out there and performing for the team," Alexander-Arnold told BT Sport after the game. "The only thing that matters is coming here, getting the wins, helping the team. It’s been a slow start to the season for me but I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Van Dijk is better placed than anyone to offer his own thoughts on his colleague, having played alongside him virtually every week for much of the last five years and the £75m Dutch defender feels the criticism has gone overboard in some quarters.
“[Trent's goal] was a big moment for us that he scored," Van Dijk said. "We created a couple of chances before that so it was good to score at that point. We know the quality Trent has and he showed that again. No matter what the outside world will say about him, we always back each other and we know that we are fighting our way back to the consistency we have always been showing over the last couple of years. We'll get there. I'm confident we'll all get there.
“He has the quality to do it and he showed it again. I've been in the UK now for eight or nine years and everyone here is very good at praising a player very high up to the sky and letting them fall as hard as they can!
"That's what we, as players, have to deal with. We forget about the well-being of players, we forget about that stuff and everyone is talking about how we should all accept it. For him to just carry on working - not only him but other players as well – and deal with it and show a reaction is what we need, all of us. To do that I think it's important that we back him and the manager and the club and the fans.
“Well, [the England issue] is something different. We are all struggling. Hopefully we get to the point where we are finding our level again. That's what we all want, that's what we all work for and what we come into training for: to get stronger, get faster, get better, but it's not a quick fix - it doesn't work like that. If it worked like that, it would be a lot easier.
"Trent has been showing it over the last couple of years; he has developed as one of the best right-backs in the country. In the end, if he doesn't make the squad, that's on Gareth Southgate. He makes the decisions and everyone has to respect his decisions. The only thing he can do is perform at the club and obviously the last few weeks have been difficult but hopefully we can find the right form again – all of us."
Van Dijk has fronted up almost every week this season, speaking openly and honestly about the team's problems during a difficult initial spell. The Netherlands captain has heard much of the criticism levelled at Liverpool by pundits across the football media and while he accepts it is simply now the way the modern game is dissected in the era of 24-hour radio, TV and online coverage, he also admits it can be difficult for players to tune out from that negativity.
“What I think is that if the players from 10, 20 years ago were under the microscope we are at the moment there would also be a lot of players struggling," Liverpool's No.4 added. "That is something we have to deal with, it's part and parcel but it's still not easy.
"You try to shut it out but other people call you and say 'are you all right?' and you think 'why?'. It will always come to you and it's not easy to just completely shut it out and keep your head down – or you need to live under a rock and just turn up for training and then go back home and go to the game and go back home. We have to deal with it but it is not easy, let's put it that way.”
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