Virgil van Dijk has urged Cody Gakpo to ignore external noise around his Liverpool career as the £40m forward gets set for his Anfield debut. Van Dijk knows Gakpo well from their time together in the Netherlands national set-up and the Oranje captain confirmed he did chat with his compatriot prior to his move to Merseyside. The £75m centre-back, who is set to undertake a spell on the sidelines following a hamstring injury, has told Gakpo to keep focused amid the focus that inevitably comes with being a big-money signing for Liverpool.
Virgil Van Dijk said: “I think he will handle it fine but you have no idea what it is like until you are under this sort of pressure. He will have to keep his head down and look at what we are doing as a group and listen to the manager, listen to the players around you and don’t listen too much to the outside world because you can be one of the best in the world one day and one of the worst the next. It is never something in the middle, so he has to stay calm and I think he will do. He is that type of person. I will help him with that, if necessary. Obviously he is a great player first and foremost but he is also a great guy, personality-wise. He will be great for the group. He is calm, as well and I think he can be very good for us. I feel like he will and he probably needs a bit of time. We will obviously give him that and hopefully our friends (the media) will give him that too but I am not worried about that.”
On the conversations Van Dijk had with the 23-year-old before his move,
Virgil Van Dijk added: “It was just normal chats, it was not that I was trying to convince him but when the time was there I gave my honest opinion and that is something I can always do. It’s very positive because I have been at this club for five years now and I have won every trophy with this beautiful club and I know how much it means – each one. To play under this manager and with these guys, it is a joy and something he will enjoy as well. Obviously I can only speak for this moment but we are struggling with injuries and I said that after the last game [against Aston Villa], we want to do so well and we want to reach our targets and in this case it is (league leaders) Arsenal. We need quality players and we need players who can decide games and I think over time he can definitely be one of those players, hopefully. So quality is always welcome at this football club.”
