Van Dijk: The Transfer Window Is Closed, We Must Aim for a Very Successful Season

In the third round of the Premier League, Liverpool defeated Ipswich Town 2-0 away from home. After the match, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk spoke to Viaplay in an interview.

First of all, captain, congratulations on achieving your first Premier League win of the season. Is the feeling now more one of relief or happiness?

It was a good game. We had many good performances, and a lot of them were things we had repeatedly worked on in training over the past few days, with very good results. The start was good, much better than the previous two matches, and we also kept a clean sheet. It had been a while since we had done that. So it was a good night, nothing more than that. We move forward from here.

As a player, if there are some negative voices surrounding the club, does that bother you? As captain, do the transfer window and everything happening around the club also affect you personally?

As captain, you do not only think about yourself. The first thing you think about is everything around you: the club, the players, how they feel, and how we should deal with certain situations. I think we are in a good place now. The transfer window is closed, and we are united, trying to achieve a very special and very successful season. That is the only thing we need to do, and that is what we need to focus on. That's all. I do not think we need to pay attention to outside noise. For me, the most important thing is what happens inside the team, not myself or my own feelings, but all of us.

I ask because I think that, as captain, you may need to be a shield for the players. Players often say, 'No, we do not care, we do not look at these things,' but in reality, of course I would look and of course I would care. So for a big club like Liverpool, a role like yours must be very important.

One hundred percent. However, we are all adults now. Of course, I will share my experience and give advice. I have been in this industry for a long time, and I know how things work. So today was a good performance from all of us. We put in a lot of effort, and there were some excellent individual performances. Alex (Isak) was obviously outstanding, scoring two great goals; Cody also performed very well. I think defensively as a whole, we were much better than before. Like I said, there were many positives today, and we can build on them. But it is only the third game of the season. Now we need to recover from this match and focus on the start of our Champions League campaign. I am really looking forward to it.

How much do you enjoy constantly changing your partners during matches? I mean your teammates on the pitch.

I do not think it is about enjoyment, but about competition. If you are a Liverpool player, I believe you have the ability needed to compete and succeed. Whoever partners me, or whoever plays, we have to perform. Through playing matches regularly, you can develop understanding and partnerships. Today I have to say that Leoni's performance was excellent; the same goes for Araujo and Kerkez. Now we move on to the next game.

For a new manager, getting his first Premier League victory with Liverpool must also be very important.

One hundred percent. Obviously, all of us wanted to win the match. Unfortunately, although there were some good moments in the first two games, we drew both matches and conceded four goals, which is a very harsh reality. We wanted to improve, and the only way to do that was to work hard on the training pitch, solve problems in training, and analyze where else we could improve. That is what we are doing. Then we need to show the results of our training in matches and maintain that level for more than 90 minutes. I think today you could see many positive changes compared with the first two games, and that is the foundation we need to continue building and strengthening.