Virgil van Dijk said he had not put pressure on Trent Alexander-Arnold to stay atLiverpooland that he believed his teammate deserved his moment of glory in Sunday’s 1-0 victory at Leicester. Alexander-Arnold’s winner – the first left-footed goal of 23 in his career – put Liverpool on the verge of a 20th league title.
Van Dijk pushed the 26-year-old, who is expected to leave for Real Madrid this summer, towards the Liverpool supporters after the final whistle and Alexander-Arnold clenched his fists in celebration.
Liverpool will seal the Premier League on Wednesday if Arsenal lose at home to Crystal Palace, and can otherwise secure it at home against Tottenham on Sunday. The Liverpool captain said it was “past my wildest dreams” to be 13 points clear at this stage.“I think we forget that we are dealing with a human being,” Van Dijk said of Alexander-Arnold, who returned from an ankle injury. “Sometimes he goes through so many moments in the last couple of months and everyone will have an opinion on the way he’s obviously been. There’s a lot of noise around him and obviously everyone can argue if it’s his own fault, [but] it’s just part of life nowadays.
“So when he scores a big goal like that, I think he deserves applause for stepping up in that particular moment and to soak it all in because whether he stays or leaves, these are moments which you shouldn’t take for granted to give us as a team the opportunity to finish it off. So I think he deserved that moment and now it’s back to work and be ready for the weekend.”
Asked whether he had spoken to Alexander-Arnold about his future, Van Dijk replied: “I think he was under a lot of pressure already so there’s no point for me to put him on the spot.”
Liverpool’s players will report for training on Wednesday after two days off. Van Dijk said Slot deserves praise for taking Liverpool to the “next level” and seamlessly adapting from life at Feyenoord and the Eredivisie in his first season in charge.
“We also shouldn’t forget that we already were a team that was fighting up until April last year, so we had the quality, we couldn’t finish it off, and this year we have found that next level in terms of consistency and finding a way.
“But listen, the staff deserve all the credit as well. Coming from Holland, to adapt so quickly, to improve so many players in the way we play, giving confidence in the way we play without a pre-season as well [because of the schedule last summer] and without signings, really.”
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Van Dijk said the squad may convene on Wednesday as they did in June 2020, when they celebrated winning the title afterManchester City lost at Chelsea, handing the crown to Liverpool. “I expect Arsenal to win at home but yeah, if it doesn’t happen then I think it would be nice to be together,” Van Dijk said. “So however that may look, we will discuss in the next couple of days.”