Van Dijk closes in on rare company as Liverpool head to Linz
Not every milestone is worth making a fuss over, but this one is. If Virgil van Dijk leads Liverpool out against LASK this week, he will do so for the 200th time as captain, a figure only seven players in the club’s entire history have ever reached.
Rare company
Steven Gerrard sits clear at the top with 470 appearances as captain, with Ron Yeats, Emlyn Hughes, Donald Mackinlay, Jordan Henderson, Alex Raisbeck and Sami Hyypia completing the list of players to reach 200 or more. Van Dijk joining that group is a fitting reflection of what he has meant to Liverpool since arriving at the club. He has rarely been just a defender. More often he has been the figure teammates look toward when a game needs calming down or dragging back under control, the sort of presence that steadies a dressing room without needing to say very much at all.
Encouraging European numbers
There are reasons for optimism beyond the armband, too. Liverpool have not lost back to back Champions League group or league phase away matches since a trip to PSV Eindhoven back in 2006-07, and they could record a third successive away clean sheet in all competitions for the first time since January 2024. Andoni Iraola’s side have also won every game this season in which they scored first, which puts extra weight on how Liverpool start in Linz. Get ahead early and the evening becomes far easier to manage. Fall behind and the pressure shifts quickly, especially against a European side playing in front of their own supporters.
Alexis Mac Allister arrives with his own quirky European record worth watching too, having scored all six of his Champions League goals for Liverpool at Anfield so far. An away goal in Austria would break that pattern, and given his recent form he may well fancy being the one to do it. It would also be exactly the sort of contribution Iraola needs from his midfield given how stretched the squad already looks this week.
LASK’s own story
LASK are no strangers to continental football. This will be their seventeenth season in major European competition and their third in the Champions League’s current top tier format. Their recent record in the group or league phase has been poor, though, with no wins in their last eight matches of that kind, and they opened this season’s European campaign with a 1-0 defeat away to AEK Athens. Domestically they have fared noticeably better, winning eight of their fourteen matches so far this season, which suggests a side capable at home but considerably less comfortable against unfamiliar European opposition.
Our take
Liverpool should see a genuine opening here, not just because of LASK’s patchy continental form but because of the platform Van Dijk’s milestone offers the whole squad. Start well, protect what they have at the back, and let a personal landmark for the captain become a winning one rather than just a footnote in a difficult week for the club. Getting the basics right in Linz matters far more than the occasion itself, and Van Dijk of all people knows that better than anyone in the squad.