Virgil van Dijk has spoken about his transition from St. Mary’s to Anfield.
The giant Dutch centre-back has been brilliant in our past three victories, already paying off some of the £75m we spent to make him the world’s most expensive centre-back.
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The 26-year-old appears to be loving life on Merseyside, improving week in, week out.
Van Dijk says it’s taken a serious adjustment though because of the upgrade in required standard from working under Mauricio Pellegrino to Jurgen Klopp.
“I am getting used to how we play,” he told Football Focus. “The intensity of our game is a lot higher than what I was used to.
“Every day here is tough. We work very hard, run a lot and there is a big difference. I needed to step up my game, especially in the beginning.”
The defender didn’t explain exactly what happened before the transfer, as we all know the painful saga that occurred during summer 2017.
According to van Dijk, he’d stopped thinking about a potential switch and only reconsidered it again once the Southampton hierarchy alerted him to our renewed bid.
“People don’t know what really happened,” he said. “I kept my head down and kept playing. I was out for eight months and was just happy to play again.
“I just switched on again after the transfer window in the summer. I didn’t think about anything until I got a phone call from the Southampton board.”
We’d rather not think about how van Dijk arrived at Liverpool anymore; we’re just mighty glad he did!
Despite a slightly shaky start, he’s been immense in recent weeks and is already one of the first names on the team-sheet.