Reds keep the focus on 'the next game' despite fine start

Despite a 100 per cent record in the Premier League, Liverpool FC’s players are determined to keep their focus on 'the next game', insists Virgil van Dijk.

With 21 points from a possible 21, Liverpool Football Club are enjoying their best ever start to a Premier League season.

Another win against Brendan Rodgers' Leicester City FC at Anfield on Saturday will leave the Reds just two victories from the outright Premier League record, which currently sits with Chelsea FC’s nine wins from nine in 2005.

Virgil van Dijk, however, is not thinking about statistics and knows all that matters is the Reds’ position after 38 games and, more urgently, Wednesday night’s UEFA Champions League clash with FC Red Bull Salzburg.

"It's the media who love statistics,” said the centre-back.

"The reality is we have nothing at the moment. We want to continue to do well and there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

"It's far too early [to look at the table]. We’re almost in October and the busy period will come. There are still so many games left and the only thing we focus on is the game ahead of us.

"We don't want to look at the others because there’s no point doing that. Everyone realises that as well because last season we saw how it turned quickly. We just want to focus on the game ahead of us."

Maintaining confidence is key, van Dijk insists.

"We have to be confident, you have to think you’re going to win every game otherwise you might as well stay at home.

"We have the quality, we have the players. We’ll take this, recover and then prepare for Salzburg."

Ahead of Wednesday night's game, the first UEFA Champions League match at Anfield since that famous 4-0 semi-final victory over FC Barcelona on the way to lifting LFC’s sixth European Cup, manager Jürgen Klopp revealed that defender Joel Matip had suffered a slight knock against the Blades and is being assessed.

"We have to see how exactly it will be,” the boss said.

"Apart from that, everybody should be fine. Of course, we have the players who weren’t available last week – that means (Xherdan Shaqiri) is still out; Alisson is very close but for sure not for tomorrow. I think that’s it pretty much."

Finally, Klopp has also announced the appointment of a brand new elite development coach.

Vitor Matos will take over the role previously held by assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders, and will work with the club’s best young talent.

"We’ve worked for a while on it,” Klopp confirmed.

"We had the idea that it makes real sense because we have so many outstanding, young boys.

"The situation is a little bit like this: if you are in pre-season, they are with us and we need them for training, for the games and all that stuff. But then the season starts and all the big guns come back and we don’t want to give them the feeling they are now a bit further away again.

"So we thought it made sense that they really get their specific coach again what Pep did years ago when I came in. I loved the fact I got a sensational assistant manager, but we lost the development coach a little bit.

"We had to fill that void and we’ve done that with a really great guy, an outstanding coach. Young and experienced, you don’t get that a lot. A kind of guy who is used to having six or seven sessions a day.

"He is smart, his English is very good – which is obviously important – and he has worked at different clubs, but is educated at Porto, which is good for us because Pep is from there as well.

"He had made his own experience already and now we can all get the benefit of that. It will be great for the boys 100 per cent.

"We have to introduce him to the boys, but he will do that today."