Virgil van Dijk is well aware outside noise means there’s no patience for Liverpool even with a new head coach in charge.
The Reds put behind their shock defeat by Nottingham Forest in the Premier League by kicking off their European campaign in style with a 3-1 victory over AC Milan. It meant the Merseysiders and new boss Arne Slot were back being applauded after a few days of criticism following the loss to Forest.
After the high of Manchester United, Forest was treated as a huge low. Now a Champions League opening win over a European giant will bring back the talk of Slot being off to a flying start. Van Dijk, 33, admits there is no let up even for a team with a new boss but he, as a senior player, has to keep everyone level headed when they win and lose.
“That is pretty obvious but in football you have to deliver today and tomorrow and if you don’t then the pressure can pile up from the outside but we have to stay calm,” said the Kop skipper. “Obviously I have a big role in that, the manager has a big role in that and we as players have to show it on the pitch.
“But who is saying things are a disaster [when we don’t win]? People from the outside, so what can you do about the outside? The only influence we have is what we do on the pitch. You saw the reaction against Milan and when you play the way we want to play instead of running around a lot, looking like we have absolutely no plan, especially as we did for the last half an hour [against Forest], then you can play for another hour and you won’t score.
“We have to – and I said it after the game – we have to stay calm and focus on our targets but going back to that game, losing at home to Forest, no disrespect to them, just us losing at home is a reality check and a shock.
“It can’t happen if you want to achieve things that I want to with the club. So today was a good reaction and now it is recovery, go home and Saturday is a big one.”
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Liverpool now host Bournemouth on Saturday as they look to get back to winning ways in the Premier League, too. They went behind in Milan inside 167 seconds when Christian Pulisic scored for the hosts at the San Siro. But Ibrahima Konate headed in a free-kick before Van Dijk turned in a corner to change the game and put Liverpool in control.
Dominik Szoboszlai secured the three points in the second half but it was the two set piece goals which showed hard work on the training pitch paid off.
Van Dijk added: “We try every game to be important at set-pieces. I think the last game I had two chances and maybe sometimes it looks and sounds easier than it is. Me and Ibou are both 6ft 4in, or whatever, and we should score every ball that comes into the box.
“But sometimes you are double marked and obviously it is not always perfect, so you have to fight for it. But today we were there and we can see how important it is because you saw today, Ibou’s goal was big, my goal was a big help in order to get going for the second, so it was good.”