Jurgen Klopp believes Virgil van Dijk is back to his best following the ACL injury that sidelined him for the majority of last season. The Dutchman returned to team training in time for pre-season and had been an ever-present for the Reds in the Premier League this year before testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this month. But with Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez also at his disposal, Klopp is relieved that he is able to manage Van Dijk’s game-time when necessary.
Jurgen Klopp said: “(He’s been) really good, really good. Long may it continue. Obviously the rehab worked really well so he came back in really good shape. He needed some rhythm, very important, and he got that rhythm. He’s now back to his best, for sure. What helps us a lot and what helped him a lot is we have options around so we don’t have to push him through in moments when his body is giving a sign that he needs to step aside for a moment. That is very helpful and that is why the situation is very good.”
Today marks four years since Liverpool confirmed the club-record signing of Van Dijk from Southampton, with the Netherlands captain joining in a £75m move after the Reds were unsuccessful in trying to sign him the previous summer. Explaining the impact the centre-back has had at Anfield, Klopp also revealed his preferred set of circumstances if he was to dip into the transfer market mid-season.
Jurgen Klopp said: “Virgil’s arrival was obviously a big day in our history. He’s a good example of a winter transfer and how it works. I think a winter transfer works when you either wanted to sign a player the summer before or the summer after anyway. That was the situation. We wanted Virgil in the summer already. For some reasons we couldn’t do the transfer but then in the winter we tried again and could get it through. It was a very important day and changed a lot for us because of his combination with Joel, with Dejan, with Joey. All of a sudden we could defend in a different way and could make the pitch smaller for the opponent which was pretty helpful. That’s why we are really happy.”
