Virgil van Dijk sees no reason to panic as top of the league Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw against Leicester City on Wednesday night.
Liverpool had a chance to increase their lead over nearest rivals Manchester City, who lost the previous night, but failed to capitalise on an otherwise dominant performance.
Can Liverpool really win the Premier League? Five key things to know…
- Liverpool currently sit five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League after 24 games.
- The Reds’ only league defeat of the season so far came against City in January.
- Jurgen Klopp’s side have the division’s best defence, conceding just 14 goals, helped largely by the contribution of Van Dijk and Alisson.
- Both sides have challenging fixtures in February, with Liverpool facing Man Utd, while City play the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.
- Van Dijk has urged Liverpool fans not to panic following their 1-1 draw with Leicester on Wednesday.
With City on their tails and without a first placed finish since 1990, Liverpool fans are understandably eager to see their side hold out at the top.
Although they dropped two points, Van Dijk made his thoughts clear to reporters, admitting he thought Anfield felt nervous: “It sounded like it.”
On whether this influenced his performance, he added: “Not to me. You get that feeling as well from the crowd and I think it’s not really necessary at the moment. But everyone wants to win so bad and that’s what we want as well. But sometimes you need to be very patient.”
Liverpool have undoubtedly been the surprise of the season. Although success was expected, no one could have predicted the side playing how they have been. However, the league is still close and every point is crucial and Liverpool are without a league title in 29 years.
Asked whether this top-flight drought is at the back of Liverpool players’ minds, Van Dijk added: “I don’t think so. In the end it’s all about showing on the pitch and we’re not going to be affected by that.
“We want everyone to cheer us on and keep pushing even if we have tough moments, even if we’re 1-0 down or maybe more. We just need everyone to pull in the same direction and keep going, that’s the only way forward.”
Despite this, Van Dijk isn’t looking back, or trying to concern himself with City’s results: “That’s not something that we focus on,”
“We were just preparing for the game and nobody talked about the City result.
“That they lose is obviously not good for them and obviously good for us for the title race. But there are so many games left, anything can happen and you saw that here against a good side. We tried to break them down, especially the last 20 minutes, but it didn’t work out.”
Van Dijk blames ‘luck’ for Leicester draw
Van Dijk has been a solid part of Klopp’s rejuvenated Liverpool side, providing a balance to the prolific Mohamed Salah in attack.
Liverpool top the table with the fewest goals against, having only conceded 14 times in the league and Van Dijk was disappointed to add to that tally.
“The pitch was horrendous,” he continued.
“It was full of ice but they need to deal with that as well. We had most of the ball and it was difficult to break them down. At times we were dangerous but in the end, it wasn’t enough to score a goal.
“What was missing? A bit of luck I think, a bit of extra edge maybe that we sometimes have a little bit more of. There are a lot of circumstances that played a part.”
As the season goes on, the battle is as much one of the mind as the body and Klopp knows that a sturdy backline and goalkeeper combination can give his forward players the confidence they need to go about their business.
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