Programme notesVirgil van Dijk: Resilient Reds ready to embrace coming month
Virgil van Dijk believes Liverpool’s resilience will stand them in good stead as they prepare to enter into a busy run of fixtures across multiple competitions.
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LASK’s visit to Anfield tonight for a Europa League Group E clash signifies the start of a sequence of nine games in just 27 days for the Reds.
The captain knows how influential this period will be on determining the outcome of the season, but feels the side have demonstrated an ability to overcome tough moments so far this term – and he fully expects Jürgen Klopp’s men to embrace the challenges of the coming weeks.
Van Dijk writes in his column in the official matchday programme: “There are times during the season when games come so thick and fast that it feels like you have no sooner finished one and you start preparing for another one almost straight away. There is no doubt that the coming month is one of those periods.
“From tonight’s fixture onwards we will play nine games in 27 days, which is obviously a challenge, but it is also a schedule that every one of us has to and will embrace because only by attacking it together will we get as much out of it as we possibly can.
“I have spoken on a number of occasions about the risks that an overly-congested fixture calendar causes to players and I stand by every word. This is very much a conversation that football needs to have for the sake not just of those who play, but also for the game itself.
“This shouldn’t be controversial because everyone in football should have the best interests of the game at heart. It is just about finding the right balance that works for everyone.
“But as well as being a test, the next four weeks also brings opportunity. I think it’s now widely accepted that we have made a decent start to the season and that is certainly how we feel about it, but we are also very much aware of the need to build on the work that has been done. As I said at the outset, this can only happen if we meet the challenge head on as a squad.
“The chance exists for us to make progress in the Europa League, the Carabao Cup and also the Premier League so we need to keep our standards as high as we possibly can while also not thinking too far ahead. This is very much a spell where the old saying about taking every game as it comes has to be something that we live by, not just a phrase that we say.
“The routine will not change. It will be: prepare, play, recover – a cycle which will repeat itself every three days. So we know exactly what we are facing and we have to be ready for it, starting with tonight’s match against LASK.
“There is also a need for us to respond positively because our last game in this competition did not produce the kind of result that we had wanted and that means there is still work to be done if we want to qualify for the next stage of the Europa League.
“Since then, we have picked up a really good win against Brentford and a solid draw away to Man City in the Premier League so the resilience that we will need tonight has definitely been there, we just need to show it once again.
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Watch on YouTube“I said after the City game at the weekend that we are striving to find the consistency that went missing last season and one of the main reasons that we aren’t doing too badly on this front is that we have been resilient.
“If you play football at this level, you know there are always going to be periods in games – and also periods of games – when toughing it out has to be the priority. I have no doubt whatsoever that we will face spells like this in the coming weeks. This isn’t being negative, it is facing up to the reality of the challenge that awaits.
“Knowing this means we can be prepared for it – mentally and physically – and we can also use our experiences from the season so far because there have been a lot of difficult moments already.
“More often than not we have found a way to come through them, so even though we know it will be tough, we will relish the challenge of what is to come.
“Our job is to see the hurdles and jump them one by one. We have to be confident, we have to give everything and we also have to enjoy it. If we can do all of these things then our chances of getting as much as we possibly can out of this period will be all the better.”
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