Van Dijk prediction: 'There is still a lot to come'

The No.4’s impact on the Reds during the past 14 months is clear, with Joel Matip the latest teammate to reference Van Dijk’s effect on those around him.

And that aspect of the centre-back’s qualities was put to Klopp as the manager previewed Friday’s Premier League clash with Southampton at St Mary’s.

“That’s what you expect and hope for when a player is coming in, that he makes the whole team better. That’s how it is and that’s how good players are,” he replied.

“He is obviously a very good player and of course he makes players better around him. I said it a couple of times, he is so important to us not only as a player but as a person as well, he is a brilliant boy – I couldn’t say a bad word about him even if I wanted to.

“On the other hand, and he knows it, you need the boys around. The one-v-two situation [last weekend], he needed Ali to be there of course but he did it for at least, it felt like 50 seconds, alone. He decided 100 per cent right but they still could have scored in the situation.

“Usually, defending is teamwork; that helps him a lot and he helps us a lot, that we do it as a team and that the boys up front start the defensive movements, that we close the right gaps, that we give him the opportunity to show his strengths.

“If we put a team under pressure and they have to play long balls, obviously the ball in the air is a big strength of Virg. But it is as well a big strength of Joel, that’s good for us.

“He improved us and I think he improved since he was here as well. He is a different player to the player he was when he was at Southampton. He was good there already – really, really good – but with all the different games he played now and being part of the Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, that all helps you as a player.

“For a centre-half he is still young, there is still a lot to come. Hopefully he can stay healthy and then everything will be fine.”

Amid another excellent performance during Sunday’s 2-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, Van Dijk earned plaudits for a stunning defensive intervention with the score level late on.

Alone in his own half and faced with Moussa Sissoko charging through and Son Heung-Min waiting to his left, the Netherlands captain held firm to force a shot over the bar rather than a pass for a more straightforward finish.

Watch: Van Dijk denies Spurs two-on-one

Klopp added: “It’s how you would expect a defender defends because you cannot concentrate on one player and say, ‘OK, pass the ball to the other one.’

“He has to defend two players, you have to close the passing way to the other player. It’s always like this in football – if you cannot be active, then you have to give the other player the opportunity to make a mistake. That’s what he actually did.

“It could have happened that the ball bounced a bit too far from [Sissoko’s] foot in the dribbling and he could have been there. That’s a defending situation.

“But that’s all theory, you have to do it in the right moment and use all the things you know about football in the right moments. That’s our life. In this moment, he did it perfectly.”