KEEPING HEAT ON CITY IS KEY FOR DUTCHMAN

VIRGIL VAN DIJK insists Liverpool will keep the heat on Manchester City as he knows how ‘uncomfortable’ it is to be put under pressure in the Premier League title race.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are in hot pursuit of the league leaders and know that if they keep up their excellent form — and can win the huge clash against City at the Etihad in April — they stand a great chance of pipping them to the title. Liverpool were in a similar situation three seasons ago when they had the chance to move 10 points clear when they faced City at the start of January, only to lose their sole game of the campaign and miss out on the title.

Van Dijk has also delivered an impassioned rallying call to the Liverpool supporters: if you don’t believe we can still win the title, don’t bother coming.

‘A couple of years ago, we were in the hot seat where we were a few points in front and it was tough and we gave it away in the end,’ said Van Dijk. ‘It is not a very comfortable place to be. It is not easy to deal with the pressure and the moment but City have proven they are able to — they are unbelievable. ‘If someone doesn’t believe in the title race any more, then don’t come and support us because you have to have the belief that we can turn this around. We work on this every day and there are still so many games to play. ‘We are on a good level at the moment. There are always things to improve but the consistency we are showing at the moment is key to being able to compete against Man City. ‘They still have a good lead. They still have an unbelievable team, so much quality and consistency, but it is never easy to have a team chasing behind you that is doing that also. We can only win our games and we will give everything we have.’