Virgil van Dijk: It's an exciting time - let's just go for it
Virgil van Dijk relished his return to Premier League football and underlined Liverpool's intention to 'go for it' this season after the 3-0 opening-day win over Norwich City.
The No.4 made his first top-flight appearance since October 2020 in Saturday’s victory at Carrow Road, completing the full 90 minutes in the latest step forward of his comeback from injury.
Having established a lead before the interval through Diogo Jota, the Reds eased to all three points courtesy of further strikes by Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.
Watch: Norwich 0-3 LFC - Highlights
Post-match, Van Dijk spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about the emotion of competing at Premier League level again, the importance of a positive start to 2021-22 and more…
On his feelings upon being back in Premier League action…
Excited, very happy obviously to start the game, to get the three points, win 3-0 away, a clean sheet. Obviously you can’t ask for more. There are obviously still many things to improve but we are early in the season. I’m still getting up to speed so these are the only moments where you can really improve as well.
On whether there were any nerves before the game…
It’s different [to pre-season]. I wasn’t nervous, I was excited, I wanted to be out there. I wanted to get the game going. In my case I just need repetition, to keep doing things: coming across, pushing up, get the ball, change of play, keep the speed, all these things, what I normally do and yeah, these are the moments where you can really improve, so that’s what I tried to do.
On the importance of starting the season with a good result…
Very important. This year is going to be exciting for many reasons, personally but as a team as well. If you look at the teams around us improving, who want to compete for the Premier League title; obviously we want to be up there as well. So it’s going to be a Premier League full of high quality which we all should enjoy. We have a fantastic squad: just go for it and take each game as it comes.
On the sense of enthusiasm around the squad and the boost of fans being back…
Of course. Seeing the fans back is a big boost, but also just playing the games, the Premier League, the best league in the world. You want to be out there, you want to perform, you want to compete, you want to win. To be able to do that with fans again as a team, hopefully we stay fit all of us, that’s something to be excited about. We’ll give it a proper go and take it game by game.