Virgil van Dijk assessed Liverpool’s pre-season friendly defeat by AC Milan, explained how he helps new signings settle and reviewed the Reds’ time in Hong Kong during a post-match press conference.
The captain was speaking immediately after Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Milan at Kai Tak Stadium. Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo were on target for the Premier League champions, who travel to Japan on Sunday for leg two of their tour of Asia.
Read a summary of Van Dijk’s press conference below.
On what positives can be taken from the game…
Obviously no-one wants to lose a game first and foremost so that’s obviously not a positive. But coming out here, seeing so many fans cheering for us, the hard work that we have been doing each and every day has been incredible [and] obviously that’s what pre-season is for. But also what showed today – I think the manager said it as well – is that we have to improve certain elements of our game, and we will. So, there are still plenty of positives. I think you could see also in the first half, especially on the ball, so many good moments [and] we created good chances.
Rio [Ngumoha] obviously, like you mentioned, I think he had good moments as well. So, we have to keep getting better, keep making the next step, keep getting fitter and fitter. We still have I think two more games, three if you want to say it, to get ready for the Community Shield and we have to work our socks off like I mentioned already last week. So, yeah, we go for it.
On how much responsibility he takes for helping new additions to Arne Slot’s squad settle as quickly as possible…
Well, I take a lot of energy in that. It’s obviously very important for any new faces that come into a club like Liverpool to feel welcome, to feel at ease to show their quality immediately. Obviously I joined the club and we had a fantastic environment already so I could immediately show what I was capable of and I think that’s what everyone wants. In terms of what I have been seeing so far, it has been great. There’s obviously a little time of adaptation and that’s absolutely normal but you could see today as well, all of them showed their quality today and I think there is much more to come as well.
But I definitely feel like, not only myself but definitely the senior guys who have been much longer at the club, have a big role to play in that sense. And then, at the end of the day, it’s all down to them: they have to show it and we will be there because we are all in this absolutely together and that’s how we attack the season.
On how he has found the visit to Hong Kong…
I think for us as players to come all the way here is a great thing because you get to learn a different culture, you see so many different things that obviously I have never seen before. I’ve never been in Hong Kong before so it’s only been positive. We had a little stroll around in Mong Kok the other day and it was nice to get a feel for everything – obviously not for too long because we got followed a little bit at a certain point! But it was all good.
But in terms of the pitches, I think the pitches are a bit tricky. I think today the preparation of the pitch had been probably the best they can do, but that’s the only thing where there is, in my opinion, a bit of room for improvement. The stadium is fantastic, obviously the air conditioning helped much in the stadium! In terms of the pre-season, you want to get fit, you train in a warm climate, I think that will definitely help but overall we had a fantastic time here, in my opinion, apart from the result tonight. I’ve definitely enjoyed my time over here and let’s see in the future if we all come back.
Published 5 hours ago
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