Trent Alexander Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk says he will use his World Cup disappointment as fuel for the rest of his Liverpool campaign. Van Dijk captained the Netherlands to a quarter-final place before they were beaten on penalties in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina in what was arguably one of the games of the tournament. The Liverpool defender missed his spot-kick in the shoot-out after what was fiery, action-packed 120 minutes of football at Lusail Stadium. And after having time to look back on the frustration of the loss, Van Dijk says he will use it to aid his quest at Anfield in the second half of the Premier League season.
Virgil van Dijk said: “Obviously I had time to reflect. It was a great experience to lead the boys out there and it obviously comes with a lot of responsibility, even more than national football I would say. Everyone is watching, the whole world is watching, which is something that I really enjoyed to be fair. Yeah, things were disappointing in the end for us; that is also part of football and I know that. I’ve lost quite a bit already so it was a tough couple of days but then it was about switching back toward the most important things in life; my wife and kids. So that was the case. It fuels me in any way, shape or form because I want to be successful with the Netherlands. I feel like we have a fantastic squad and new era with Ronald Koeman coming back and young players coming through, like Cody (Gakpo) for example. He can make big steps with his transfer and then become more important for us. Hopefully we can do something nice in the summer with the Nations League finals, that will be a nice step and it is something I really want to win, even though it is the end of the season when you are absolutely shattered, probably. We will definitely go for it but it also motivated me here. We are quite some points behind Arsenal but the season could be a very crazy one, a very strange one. But we have to be realistic and we’re not thinking about the title at the moment. We have to focus on the game ahead of us, win games and then we’ll see. I am always motivated, I always want to win and I give everything each and every game.”
Liverpool return to action on Monday (January 2) when they travel to Brentford. They will go into that game on the back of a 2-1 win at home to Leicester City on Friday night. Results over the weekend mean Jurgen Klopp’s side are four points behind Manchester United, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot, and 15 behind leaders Arsenal.
