Virgil van Dijk sends message to Liverpool team-mates after Champions League win over Lille – as Arne Slot’s side chase unprecedented quadruple

Virgil van Dijk has called on his teammates to learn the lessons from last season and ‘enjoy’ the ride over the next few months with Liverpool still in all four competitions and talks of doing the quadruple only growing by the day.

Under Jurgen Klopp last season, Liverpool reached March with the Carabao Cup in the bag and still in contention for the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League but failed to go the distance in all of them after Klopp announced he would be leaving at the end of the campaign.

‘You have to learn from difficult moments and moments that don’t go your way. Most of the guys in the dressing room now have experienced last year and that should make you better, make you aware of how to deal with certain situations and circumstances, and you should be better equipped,’ said Van Dijk.

‘At the moment I am looking at our team and we are very calm, we are working our socks off every day and every game and we need everyone fit, healthy and in form. That’s the aim. Going into every game with the mentality that it is game-by-game. That’s how it’s always been the case. It’s a nice ride, I think you should enjoy it as well and I will definitely do it,’ added the Liverpool captain.

With victory over Lille on Tuesday night, Liverpool made it seven wins out of seven in the Champions League and secured a direct passage through to the last 16 in March, with Lille striker Jonathan David saying he thinks Arne Slot’s side ‘might be the best team in the world’.

His comments came just days after Brentford boss Thomas Frank described the Premier League leaders as the ‘best team in the world’ and Van Dijk admitted such praise showed they are only heading in the right direction.

Arne Slot has had a dream start in his first season on Merseyside as his side chase a quadruple

The Reds top the Premier League table by six points and the Champions League table by three

‘I think it gives confirmation that we are on the right track,’ he said.

‘We work so hard in every game to be a very difficult team to beat. When other managers are giving you praise for not only the way you attack but defend as well as a group and the bodies you get back behind the ball, that is only a good sign and credit to all the hard work each and everyone has been putting in. 

‘That’s the only thing we should take from it and other than that it is just focussing on doing it and staying consistent.’

Sunday will mark a year since Klopp announced his departure and Van Dijk insisted that he doesn’t know if it’s a surprise with how quickly the players have adapted to life under Slot. 

Since the Dutchman took over in the summer, Liverpool have won 26 of their 33 games across all competitions with Slot having a win percentage of 79 per cent – the best in Liverpool’s history.

‘At this point we haven’t achieved anything but we are in a very good place and a place that other teams want to be in and are fighting for,’ said Van Dijk.

‘But we have to stay calm and we will. If we have surprised ourselves, I don’t know. I know this squad already for a couple of years so there are not many changes – obviously the biggest change is the manager and the staff and how he wants us to play and I think we adapted to that pretty quickly, I don’t think there are major tweaks.

‘I think the boys have been doing brilliantly and that has been shown and we have to keep that going until the end of the season and hopefully we can get the reward for that.’