Van Dijk insists Reds have learned their lesson
VIRGIL VAN DIJK says Liverpool have learned from the painful lessons of last season and will not let the title slip away again.
Liverpool had an eight-point gap over Manchester City last season but Pep Guardiola’s men pegged them back in one of the most exciting title races in Premier League history.
Van Dijk finds himself top of the pile again going into the international break with an eight-point lead over Leicester and Chelsea while they are nine ahead of City.
But while Liverpool lost last season at the Etihad and dropped crucial points at Manchester United and Everton, the Dutch defender believes that experience will help.
Van Dijk says it is crucial they keep pushing themselves to improve to not let City back in and believes their mentality will be the key to winning the title.
“We took a lot of experience last year,” he said. “Good things, but also some things we should have done better. Hopefully we can only make sure we react better and do better. You need to have that bit of luck as well throughout the whole season so we are very happy. We drew one game and won the others and hopefully we can keep it going.
“We did everything possible. We shouldn’t have any regrets from last year. City were just outstanding. We kept pushing them and they kept pushing us and you have to respect that and I certainly do.
“This year is a new chance for more teams, for both of us and the only focus is the game ahead of us, we have so many difficult periods of games with so many competitions, travelling and hopefully no injuries, no illness, so anything can happen.
“Obviously, we are in a very good situation. That is something we can’t deny. We all feel and we know the season is too long to celebrate that we are nine points ahead – and we won’t.
“The mentality we have is we just have to carry on and keep doing better than we have done already. That is the mentality we should take into every game.”
City’s remarkable fightback last year will give Guardiola confidence they can do it again and it will also serve as a warning to Liverpool who face a daunting December fixture list with the Club World Cup, Carabao Cup quarter-final and festive period.
But Jurgen Klopp’s (above) side’s impressive win over the reigning champions has sent out a message and given them belief this can be their year to end Anfield’s 30-year wait for the championship.
Van Dijk added: “I think it was very big to get three points against the champions. A very tough game. It looked like a shaky start, you give four set-pieces away and have to find a rhythm again. “Our mentality is we shouldn’t get carried away, eight points clear, we are very happy with the situation but there are so many difficult teams to beat, so many difficult grounds to go to we all have in our minds we shouldn’t get carried away. “Chelsea and Leicester have been doing very well and even if you look at Sheffield United, they are a very difficult team to beat. “Everyone here knows as how difficult this season will be.
“But we shouldn’t look too much at others teams, we should look at the teams we face. City are champions and we did the job against them. Hopefully we can keep that focus for the next games.”