Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk had been talking for two minutes and 10 seconds without interruption but still had one more thing to add: “Sorry for the long answer.”
The admirably composed centre back had nothing to apologise for after calmly dismantling the hysteria which has swirled around the reigning Premier League champions over the past month. Van Dijk, in his role as club captain, has been exposed to the brunt of public scrutiny during his frequent, unwanted, media duties at a time of unprecedented struggles for Liverpool in the modern era.
Five consecutive defeats to English opposition for the first time in 72 years had fans, pundits and even some Liverpool players fearing the worst.
A convincing 2–0 victory at home to Aston Villa on Saturday night helped dampen some of the doom-mongering and served as the platform for Van Dijk to take aim at these “ridiculous takes.”
“Even in good times, you have to still keep going and don’t take our foot off the gas,” the Dutch skipper told . “What I’ve noticed over the last few weeks is that there’s a lot of noise that you have no control over and we have to deal with that as a team. Some of the takes are ridiculous, but you deal with it.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher notably warned that it was “crisis time” for his past employers after they were meekly undone by Brentford’s direct approach last weekend. Van Dijk revealed that this very high-profile criticism can penetrate the sanctity of Liverpool’s squad, but stressed for level heads going forward.
“Outside noise can reach certain players,” he admitted, “but we stick together. We are not going out on the pitch to lose games or leave fans disappointed, we want to work our socks off and win games. But it’s not a guarantee, the Premier League is the highest level.
“Now it’s time to start working, never get too high or too low. We live in a world where everyone can have their own opinions on so many platforms and they know better. We have to stay away from that and focus on the hard work we are doing.
“Last season, we did some negative stuff but everything was all sunshine and rainbows everywhere. Now it sounds like we’re going to be in a relegation battle—that’s how it works in the world.”
To underscore the many salient points Van Dijk made, that solitary win took Liverpool back up to third in the Premier League table.
