Virgil van Dijk has revealed he was on the cusp of replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold on free-kicks at Liverpool had the Reds' right-back not scored in a 3-2 defeat to West Ham in November.
Alexander-Arnold produced a special effort during Liverpool's loss at the London Stadium and has become the club's go-to choice from dead-ball situations in recent times.
The 23-year-old scored his first goal for the club in a Champions League qualifier against Hoffeheim from a free-kick and has since hit the target against Chelsea (X2), Crystal Palace, Watford and West Ham United from similar positions.
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But Van Dijk, who developed a reputation for set-piece goals at Celtic, has admitted he was close to taking over from his Liverpool team-mate.
He said : "I was going to go next, you know, with the free-kick.
"But then Trent scored against West Ham. If he missed it, I would have been next.
"The most difficult things with free-kicks is to be consistent," added the Dutch defender who tried his luck and missed from a set-piece in Liverpool's 4-1 win over Everton earlier this season.
Despite not being handed this responsibility, the 30-year-old very much remains Jurgen Klopp's go-to man when it comes to the art of defending.
Commenting on the approach he takes when faced with one-versus-one situations against attackers, Van Dijk added: "You should pick a side where you want the striker to go, so you basically put a trap. You try to know what is best
"I try to look at the eyes. If someone in front of you is very technical and does all these tricks, you might be thinking 'What's going on here'?
"You can see from the body language and, in my case, I like to look at some player's eyes."
