Speaking to Liverpool’s official club website, Ozan Kabak has been waxing-lyrical about Virgil van Dijk.
The Turkish defender was speaking about his style of play and where he needs to improve, and he believes he needs to improve his anticipation.
One man who he looks up to in that regard is van Dijk, and Kabak has been full of praise for the Dutchman.
“I don’t know how it’s called in English but you need to guess where’s the danger and you need to go there and cover. You need to be intelligent. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do but it’s about experience, too, I think,” Kabak said.
“Our friend Virgil [van Dijk], for example, is so good at this job. He does it very well because he’s a really experienced guy and he knows this football. So I tried to do my best and game by game I think I got better on this.
Kabak also spoke about the advice van Dijk has been giving him since he joined Liverpool.
“He [Van Dijk] gave me small tips about our football mentality,” Kabak adds. “I think defenders understand each other better and he came with some small tips about how we play or what I need to do. It helps [my] game.”
We can only hope that Kabak is taking the advice on board from van Dijk.
There are few defenders in world football who can teach a young player as much as van Dijk, and it seems as though Kabak is a real admirer of the Liverpool star.
Of course, due to the centre-back’s long-term injury issue, Kabak is yet to play alongside van Dijk, but if the Turkey international’s option to buy clause is activated by the Reds, this is a centre-half pairing we could see next season.
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