Virgil van Dijk has admitted that Liverpool's revamped central defence will require time to develop the necessary understanding, following a summer of significant change at the back for the Premier League club.
The overhaul was triggered by Ibrahima Konate's exit after a season in which his partnership with Van Dijk struggled to prevent a disappointing title defence. Ongoing injury problems for Joe Gomez and Giovani Leoni added further pressure on the club to bring in reinforcements.
Liverpool responded by agreeing a £60 million deal for Jeremy Jacquet late in the winter window, though a season-ending injury meant the 21-year-old had to wait until this weekend to make his first appearance for the club. He impressed across a 45-minute outing in Sunday's 2-0 pre-season friendly win over Como, netting the second goal before being replaced by Ronald Araujo, who joined Liverpool on loan from Barcelona with an option to buy just a week earlier. The former Barça captain also caught the eye on his own debut.
With Jacquet expected to start away at Newcastle this weekend, Van Dijk stressed that competitive fixtures, rather than training sessions, will be crucial in helping the new pairing settle.
"I won't say it's the only way, but games are totally different than training," the Netherlands captain said. "Jeremy's English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald's, but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers, we can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations.
"But it's pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. That's absolutely normal, but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible."
The trip to St James' Park represents the first real examination for new head coach Andoni Iraola, who is attempting to restore the high-intensity approach that defined Jurgen Klopp's Anfield reign after Arne Slot's two-year tenure. Iraola raised eyebrows earlier in pre-season when he revealed his squad were unable to sustain running for more than half an hour at a time.
To help ease the transition, Iraola has shifted Dominik Szoboszlai into a deeper midfield role alongside Ryan Gravenberch, freeing Florian Wirtz to operate as a number 10. Even so, Liverpool still look short of numbers in midfield and attack, particularly with Mohamed Salah unavailable for the first time in nine years and Hugo Ekitike sidelined as he recovers from Achilles surgery.
Van Dijk, however, believes the physical demands Iraola is asking of his players are ultimately realistic and achievable with the right approach.
"What I see is that no team in world football can play full intensity for 90 minutes," he said. "Obviously you're going to have some moments where players get to a position where we're going be a bit tired and then it's down to us to make sure that we are compact and find the right moment to press again.
"Obviously everyone's eager to go and to press and keep their intensity up, but it's a team game and we need everyone together in order to be able to do that. That goes in phases through the game, but if you do that at the right time then you don't need to run as much as we sometimes do."
The Liverpool captain added that signs of progress were already visible during the win over Como, even as the squad continues to adapt to Iraola's demands. "It's a process and we're working on that," he said. "Against Como there was definitely improvement."
Based on reporting from The Independent.