Steve McManaman has raised his concerns regarding Liverpool's lack of long-term leaders, claiming no one in the current side 'jumps out' as a potential captain for the foreseeable future.
Jordan Henderson has served as skipper of the side since Steven Gerrard's departure in 2015, with James Milner assuming the role of vice-captain.
The duo have represented the team to great effect during this period, but McManaman has questioned what comes next for this Liverpool team.
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Virgil van Dijk would be the obvious player to take over the first-team captaincy once Henderson and Milner are no longer at the club, though the former Liverpool midfielder is not convinced the Reds have a suitable solution to this question within the current squad.
"Captaincy doesn’t really bother me, but it’s difficult when you look at the Liverpool squad," said McManaman.
"You would just go backwards into defence and give it to one of the defenders. If anything happened to Jordan Henderson and James Milner, I presume you’d give it to Virgil. He’d be the ideal choice, but he’s now 30.
"At the moment, you wouldn’t necessarily give it to Joe Gomez as he’s too young and inexperienced," he told Horseracing.net .
"When you look at the XI that started against Crystal Palace, nobody jumps out who is going to be there for the next ten years and be a leader. Not yet certainly.
"You could say Ibrahima Konate, but he’s too young. There needs to be so much development and growing up and maturing. You could possibly give it to him in two or three years."
Jurgen Klopp revealed in 2018 that the Liverpool team held a vote to decide the club's third and fourth choice captains, which saw Virgil Van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum receive this responsibility.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is one player who could be handed more of an important role following Wijnaldum's summer exit, having captained the Reds in a Champions League group stage match with FC Midtjylland last season.
