Collymore expects Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk to retire internationally in order to extend Liverpool career | OneFootball

Liverpool have received two wonderful pieces of news in the last seven days, with Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk signing new contracts in order to extend their respective spells at Anfield.

Salah’s renewal was announced last week, with van Dijk’s decision being made official on Thursday – days after he scored the winning goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over West Ham, which was another step in the direction of Arne Slot’s side winning the Premier League.

Salah and van Dijk have been two of Liverpool’s top performers this season, and despite both being in their thirties, there was a clear desire for them to remain at the club.

Salah and van Dijk staying is perfect news for Liverpool

Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool at Craven Cottage (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

In his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Collymore spoke on his delight at Salah and van Dijk signing new contracts at Liverpool.

“It is excellent for Liverpool to retain the services of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk. For me, it does not matter how much money they have been offered given their ages, because the money that it would cost to replace them would surely be so much more. Both of them are more than capable of keeping their levels for the next 2-3 years, even if they were to regress slightly in terms of physical fitness.

“In van Dijk’s case, he is very capable of maintaining his natural ability to read a match even if he slows down – he just has that thing that so many other defenders do not. And with Salah, I don’t see him losing much of that critical pace two or three years down the line. The only thing that both must be wary of is being overplayed, which would bring on injuries – but to manage this, I would not be surprised to see them retire from international football in the not-too-distant future. There could be a conversation about that after the 2026 World Cup.”

Collymore also believes that it was more important for Liverpool to retain the services of Salah and van Dijk instead of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who looks set to join Real Madrid as a free agent.

“If you had told me last summer that Liverpool would keep Salah and van Dijk but lose Trent Alexander-Arnold, I’d have been doing cartwheels – and I am sure that supporters will feel the same. The latter is an excellent player, but he is not as crucial to Arne Slot’s side as the other two. Conor Bradley is more than capable of stepping up, and in terms of passing output, there is already the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister. But Liverpool are not a long passing side anyway.”