Virgil van Dijk's first LFC year: Making improvements
Collectively, Liverpool's defensive record has improved since Van Dijk's arrival at the club 12 months ago. Individually, our No.4 believes his own game has enhanced...
Our defensive record this season has been spoken about a lot and I’m definitely proud of it. The entire team has contributed towards it and we should all be proud of the fact we’re trying to keep clean sheets, not only the defence.
The goalies who’ve played, Loris last season, Alisson who has come in and done fantastic, Simon too. Dejan has been fantastic, Joe has been doing amazing. Trent, Robbo, Clyney, Joel, Alberto… everyone has done their bit. We all do it together. Everyone is a big part of the records we’ve set.
I have said it in plenty of interviews before, defending starts up front with the press. If the opposition beat the press, then we get involved. Sometimes it happens and you need to be more than ready for that. Then, we as a back four still have a world-class goalie behind us if the opposition get behind us. We all do it together and that’s something to be proud of collectively.
Setting club records is very, very nice and something to stimulate everyone else to keep going and not be satisfied with what we have right now. Hopefully we’ll all be happy at the end of the season with something to show for it.
It’s very important to me all the lads get the recognition. I had a chat with Robbo about it recently – not about him not getting any recognition, more that when things are going well people will probably say that I am the one that changed things, but it is not like that. But if things are not going well, I am the guy that will get the blame because of my transfer fee. But that’s the life we live as footballers.
These days, people can say whatever they want – but I will personally make sure, and I tell them as well, that the lads get the recognition they deserve. I tell them, it is all of us – all of us together – working day in and day out. Sometimes I have not that good a game, maybe then Robbo, maybe someone else, that is always how it is in football. It’s about how we do it together. ‘Together’ is the key in this otherwise you cannot stop conceding goals.
On an individual level, I have definitely improved as a player in the last 12 months. The way we play is something I had to get used to, I had to learn. I definitely have made big steps in that. I have improved in every aspect of my game I think, but there is still plenty to improve. I still have some time to do that I think. I need to keep improving, doing what we’re doing and hopefully achieve good things.
I was very happy to get my second goal for the club at Wolves last week, but scoring more is something I can definitely get better at. It’s not in my head, though; it’s not like I am thinking ‘I need to score more goals!’ all the time. I know I can improve, improve on certain things, and definitely in attacking, scoring from set-pieces, or be more dangerous.
At the end of the day, my main job in my position is to try to not concede goals – and that’s been going pretty well! Obviously when we have the chance to score from a set-piece I need to do better. I know that and I will definitely keep working on it. It’s the only way to do it. I have had certain chances that normally should have been a goal, but I was really pleased to get that one at Wolves.