Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports that ‘hopefully’ his Liverpool teammates are ‘glad’ that he is back shouting at them.
After a long lay-off, Van Dijk made his first Premier League start in nearly a year as Liverpool eased past Norwich City 3-0 over the weekend.
It was a typically effortless performance from the Dutchman, who as always, didn’t break a sweat or have the need to put his foot on the accelerator against the newly-promoted side.
Van Dijk was asked what the hardest thing was to pick up on after going 300 odd days without training and having to kick a ball.
“Repetitions,” said Van Dijk. “I think the first day of training with the group you need to get back into normal habits.
“Diagonal protection. Coaching. You have not been shouting to the rest of the team for such a long while.
On whether they were glad he was back shouting at them: “Well, hopefully,” added Van Dijk. “It’s just a repetition of the normal habits. The only way to get into that is to play the game.
“I made great steps during pre-season and hopefully this is another great step and we can keep that going.”
Whilst Liverpool are being tipped to be title contenders this season, they aren’t being backed to go all the way like both Manchester clubs and Chelsea are being backed.
Perhaps their summer transfer business (or lack of it) has played a part in that because Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho and Romelu Lukaku are the big names that those clubs have added to their forward lines.
Last summer, Liverpool announced the signing of Diogo Jota out of the blue, so nothing can be ruled out yet.
But perhaps the feeling on Merseyside is that one more big name is needed to challenge someone like Roberto Firmino and make them stand up more in the title race.
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