Virgil van Dijk believes he has seen enough from Liverpool’s early-season performances to suggest reasons to be positive, but acknowledged there is still plenty of hard work ahead as they prepare to kick off their Europa League campaign at LASK.
The Reds turn their attentions to European competition on Thursday night following a fine start to the 2023-24 Premier League season, which has yielded four wins and a draw from their first five fixtures.
Van Dijk is encouraged by the team’s opening to the campaign, but knows they will have to be ready to overcome tougher moments as it progresses over the coming weeks and months.
The captain was speaking at a press conference in Austria on Wednesday ahead of Liverpool’s Group E clash with LASK in Linz. Read on to see what he had to say…
On playing in the Europa League instead of the Champions League this season…
We all wanted before the season ended last year to be in the Champions League. That’s what we fought for but, unfortunately, we didn’t deserve it. What we deserved was the Europa League so we’re going to give it everything that we have – and we want to give it everything we have. We want to try to win it, but it doesn’t happen overnight so we have to work for it and that starts tomorrow.
On returning to action after his two-game Premier League suspension…
It has been very frustrating personally, but it also brought me a lot of other good things. I really enjoyed the team spirit, obviously the results [and] the way we’ve worked as a squad. Everything happens for a reason, that’s how I see it. I’m back now and I am definitely looking forward to it. I was quite lucky there were two international games in between, otherwise it would have been quite some time for me to play again.
On whether this can be considered ‘the emergence of a new Liverpool’ team and whether that excites him…
Well, let’s hope so. We are working very hard each and every day – that was from the first day of pre-season. New players came in, young players coming through, different roles for certain players and everyone is getting used to that. I see a lot of potential, I see a lot of good things already and the results have been there. But we take it game by game, that’s always how it has been and even in our successful years over the last [few] years and we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.
We know each game we play in each competition is going to be a tough one and tomorrow will be the same. Yes, definitely, it’s an exciting time, there are a lot of young players, a lot of quality players and if you look at the last game especially, and I watched it like all of you guys from the sidelines, the first half was not how we all wanted to perform but the reaction we showed was a sign of good things that could happen this year. The way we played, the way we stayed calm and kept doing our principles, that is something I really enjoyed to see [as well as] I think everyone at the club. It’s a good foundation to build on and we just have to keep going. There will be a lot of tough moments during this whole season and we have to be ready to face them. We’re looking good, but obviously we are in September, so nothing is decided, nothing is proven, but it’s a good start.
On what he made of Jarell Quansah’s full Liverpool debut at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday…
Well, particularly on the weekend, he was outstanding in my opinion. To play away at Wolves, difficult game, but I think for the amount of time he played he was outstanding. For him to stay cool-headed, do the job, he was very solid, someone you could build in that game and it was great to see. I was very proud and pleased for him. He should just see it as a start – but it’s a very good start. He has to keep going, keep working, keep learning, but he is at a great club, a great environment and a great team in my opinion, so just keep going. Hopefully he will be very important both now and in the future for the club.
On Liverpool being ‘favourites’ to win this season’s Europa League…
It’s a reflection of the world we live in at the moment. It’s a bit from one extreme to the other now and then from the outside world. We just have to stay calm and stay level-headed. We know there are so many games to play and twists and turns can happen all the time. We know we had a good start result-wise and there are so many things we still have to improve if you look at our games. We just have to stay calm and whatever everyone else says from the outside world, or writes, we have no influence on so we should not worry or think about it, either.
