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Virgil van Dijk has been told his position at Liverpool could be in question following Arne Slot's handling of Andy Robertson. The reigning league champions forked out $52 million (£40m) for Milos Kerkez's services from Bournemouth this past summer and the 22-year-old began the season as Slot's first-choice left-back.
Despite the impressive season the Hungarian had with the Cherries in the 24/25 campaign, it's been a tough start to life at Anfield for Kerkez who has yet to showcase the form he showed last season.
His struggles, coupled with Robertson's impressive cameos off the bench, has seen Kerkez drop to the bench for Liverpool's last three games with the Scotsman returning to the Robertson of old.
While the 31-year-old has reclaimed his spot in the starting XI, the initial decision to place him on the substitutes bench was criticised by ex-Chelsea star Pat Nevin, who slammed Slot's handling of the club's vice-captain.
Speaking to CasinoHawks, the former Scotland international said: "I think Robbo has been quite poorly treated there for a little while this season. I think, and he's been an absolute, staggeringly good professional throughout however. An absolute brilliant professional.
"He just took it, sucked it up, and then since he came back he's looked really good. And they've looked better, generally, with him there, because it's a settled group, a unit that knows each other. Kerkez will get the spot eventually. But that's not the first time they’ve tried to replace Robbo, by the way."
Despite not being a fan of Slot's decision, Nevin did praise the Dutchman for seeing the error of his ways and restoring Robertson back into the starting line-up. "But Kerkez will get that job, because he's a good player, but it might take a little while," Nevin continued.
"The fact is, he seemed to freeze so far on occasions and you can’t allow that. I'm convinced it was a bad idea to drop Robbo. And I'm convinced Arne Slot has realised that now. So well done, Slot, for figuring that out."
In what was a huge summer of change for Liverpool who said goodbye to the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, Nevin admitted that the dropping of Robertson could be a stark reminder to Van Dijk that even his place in the team is not guaranteed.
He explained: "Imagine if you're Liverpool and you've got a very successful group and you've just won the league, but you know you've got to change it, you've got to, football moves on. It's evolution, not revolution at that point. Don't throw in a revolution.
"Because when you do that, not only are you going to change the dynamic in the team, because you're going to drop important players, Trent Alexander-Arnold has gone, you're going to dump Andy Robertson, and Luis Diaz has gone, and you're bringing in Alexander Isak.
"And they're good players. But this is a massive difference. People think, ‘Well, is it because they're not playing well, they're not understanding each other?’ It's all those things. But I'll tell you something else. If you are Virgil van Dijk or someone like that, you'll look and think: ‘Am I next?’ You won't say it out loud, but you will think it."
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