Liverpool “on the Right Track” but Virgil van Dijk Wants More That That

Liverpool are on the right track, but being on the right track isn’t the goal, not for the club or the manager and certainly not for star defender Virgil van Dijk, who says he’s happy with the progress he and his teammates have made since he joined but progress isn’t enough.

It has to lead to something. It has to end with success and silverware. That, in the end, is what the towering centre half insists matters most, even while he doesn’t want to diminish the positive mood surrounding the club since he arrived for £75M back in January.

“It has been going well and good, obviously, but in the end we have nothing at this moment other than a lot of improvement and being on the right track,” he told ESPN this week. “But I feel there is something going on here. We have got great momentum at the moment.”

In the league in particular they do seem to have that, especially following a stoppage time victory over Everton, but there’s still a feeling that this is a side that has yet to play at their best. Not from front to back and not with any real consistency—especially in Europe.

Liverpool are in contention in the league and can advance to the Champions League knockout rounds, but they can and will need to play better. There’s promise, and there has been improvement, but they aren’t where they want or need to be. Not yet.

“Obviously we can all still improve a lot of our game, but like I said, there is definitely the feeling that we are on the right track,” 27-year-old Dutch international added. “It will be very difficult, but we need to look at ourselves. That’s the only thing, what is best for us.

“We have so many games still to play and so many difficult ones for everyone in the league. Obviously, we want to keep winning, keep doing what we’re doing and we need to look at ourselves, that’s the most important thing. Then we’ll see if it’s going to be close.

“We believe in each other, we know what we are capable of, we know we are very difficult to beat and very difficult to get a result from.”