Virgil van Dijk thinks that he owes much of his stormy development in recent years to manager Jürgen Klopp. According to the 28-year-old defender, the German ensures that the bar is always high at Liverpool.
“The manager demands a lot from me and that has helped me to become the player I am now,” said Van Dijk on the Liverpool site on Saturday. “Here I have to think much more tactically, for example about the way we put pressure. That was something I had to work on, but so far so good. “
The captain of the Dutch national team made the switch from Southampton to Liverpool in January 2018 and has since grown into one of the best defenders in the world. Van Dijk won the Champions League with Liverpool last season and was named European Footballer of the Year.
Already in his first months with Liverpool, Van Dijk was a regular, although the 33-time international says he needed time to get used to it. “In my first six months at Liverpool I had to deal with a lot of intense training sessions,” Van Dijk looks back on his early days.
“Suddenly things were asked of me that were never asked of me before. But I enjoyed the hard work, as well as the nice discussions with the other players about how we should play. I believe that there is always room for improvement and I keep looking for that. “
Van Dijk was on his way to greater success with Liverpool this season – Klopp’s formation can hardly miss the first league title since 1990 – but the competition has been halted since March due to the corona crisis. “It’s a weird situation for everyone in the world, no matter what profession you practice. I try to stay as fit as possible and be ready when the season can resume.”
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