Van Dijk: I made the right move
VIRGIL van Dijk believes Liverpool’s charge towards the Champions League semi-finals is proof he was right to join the Merseyside club.
The Holland defender turned down advances from tonight’s quarter-final opponents Manchester City and Chelsea last summer to join Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield project in January.
And he believes helping the Reds to a place in the last four would be the first payback on the faith they showed in forking out £75million to Southampton for his services.
“I knew from day one when we made the decision I wanted to come to Liverpool. I wanted to make the next step here and I want to win trophies like everyone in our team,” he said.
“These games were definitely a reason why I wanted to play for Liverpool and I am enjoying every bit of it. I love the club already.”
Van Dijk, right, has quickly assumed leadership of Klopp’s back line and says he embraces the challenge and pressure of being an emblem of Liverpool’s progress.
Certainly his arrival has shored up a back line which has posted eight clean sheets in their last dozen matches, including in the first leg against City last Wednesday.
Van Dijk insisted credit should be spread around the whole team given the way Klopp challenges everyone to contribute. And he also hailed the Liverpool boss.
“I don’t take credit on my own for clean sheets. It is the whole way we defend. If you look closely at what those three up front do collectively and then the guys behind, it makes it so much easier for us,” he said.
“Everyone around us is fantastic and should be proud of how we defend and how many goals we have scored. Without the help of everyone else Mo would not have so many goals.
“Everyone is doing their bit. And the manager is the complete manager. He is a fantastic team manager, everyone is working hard together.” REPORTS PEP GUARDIOLA has called on his Manchester City players to produce the “perfect” performance to prevent their wonderful season ending with a sense of anti-climax.
Coming on the back of their failure to clinch the Premier League title in the Manchester derby, a quarter-final exit from the Champions League to Liverpool would take the edge off what could still be a record-breaking domestic campaign.
City would be left with the formality of winning two of their remaining six games to add the championship to the Carabao Cup already in the trophy cabinet, as well as having the incentive to set record totals in terms of points, wins and goals scored.
But such are the standards they have set in the club’s aspirations to be kings of Europe, not to mention their huge spend in the transfer market, it is not quite how they hoped the season would end.
History is certainly against City tonight. Since the European Cup was remodelled into the Champions League in the 1992-93 season, only twice has a team recovered from a three or four-goal first-leg deficit – Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain (6-1 win after a 4-0 defeat) last season and Deportivo La Coruna against AC Milan in 2004 (4-0 win after a 4-1 defeat). Including all European competitions going back to the midFifties, such a comeback has been achieved on only five other occasions.
But Guardiola believes it can be done if his players can strike the right balance between keeping Liverpool out and going for goals. Scoring first, he says, is vital to build momentum and unnerve their rivals.
“Of course to go through we have to make almost the perfect game, create chances, be clinical, defend well and concede few chances,” he said. “All the conditions have to be perfect. Getting the result is tough but we have 90 minutes to do it and in ❑ ANDER HERRERA says he “always respects other club’s crests” after TV footage showed the Manchester United midfielder spitting on a City badge painted on the side of the Etihad pitch on Saturday. A United spokesperson said: “It was entirely accidental and there was no intent whatsoever.”