Programme notesVirgil van Dijk: Our spirit and togetherness can serve us well
Virgil van Dijk wants to see Liverpool maintain the collective spirit and togetherness that has underpinned their performances so far this season, with Union SG next up tonight at Anfield.
The Reds return to action in the Europa League this evening, hosting the Belgian team for their second fixture of Group E after a victory at LASK on matchday one.
In his notes for the official matchday programme, captain Van Dijk says: "It isn't very often that you lose a game and the strongest emotion you feel along with the obvious disappointment is pride, but this is exactly how I felt after our defeat to Spurs at the weekend.
"I was proud to be captain of this club, proud to lead this team and proud of the supporters who backed us to the hilt when so much was going against us. That collective spirit can only serve us well going forward. Yes, the points are gone for good but there is nothing stopping us from using the positives and the biggest one for me was definitely the way that we all stuck together. Again, the result went against us, but in so many ways this was Liverpool FC at its defiant and determined best.
"It wasn't as if we haven't shown these qualities already this season either. We have shown them in games in which we have gone behind and come back to win. We have shown them in other fixtures when we have been a player down but carried on fighting as if we still had a full 11 on the pitch. So, it is up to us to carry on getting up when we get knocked down, hopefully starting with the game tonight."
On facing Union, the No.4 continues: "Like every opponent, Union Saint-Gilloise will come to Anfield looking to make things as difficult for us as possible and rightly so. They have their own job to do and their own objectives to achieve.
"On top of this we know that they have a squad with plenty of quality so we have prepared for this fixture in the knowledge that we will be given a real test. The Belgian Pro League tells us everything we need to know anyway. Union SG are top of that division ahead of clubs like Gent, Anderlecht and Club Brugge so this speaks for itself.
"They are clearly an ambitious, upwardly mobile club which is writing its own stories and that makes them a threat not just to us but to whoever they come up against in the Europa League.
"The fact that we have started the group stage with a good result away to LASK is undoubtedly a positive, but it will have no bearing on this game. It is a different challenge against a different opponent, and we have to be prepared for that if we are to build upon the good start we made in Austria."
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Van Dijk concludes: "I am sure the manager will have some big decisions to make in terms of who starts because we are in a busy period and we have had some tough challenges already but the same principle applies as always: whoever is selected has to do the job asked of them.
"I have spoken a few times this season about how important this is and how impressed I have been with our squad as a whole, so the key now is for all of us to carry on with the same approach.
"If we can do that we will see where it takes us. As we discovered on Saturday, you don't always get what you deserve in football, but experience also tells us that if you want to give yourself the best chance of succeeding you have to keep on doing the right things. That has to be our own objective, not only tonight but in every game we play."
