Virgil van Dijk has heaped praise on teammate Florian Wirtz and backed him to continue delivering for Liverpool after he scored his first goal for the club in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wirtz has faced criticism for his lack of attacking output since moving to Anfield in an initial £100million transfer from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer. However, he broke his goal drought this weekend to help Liverpool edge past Wolves and move up to fourth in the Premier League table.
“I was very happy for him,” Van Dijk said. “He played a very good game. Everyone was outstanding in the first half. It’s great to see and hopefully many more to come from him.
“He’s getting used to playing for Liverpool and what we want to do as a team. He’s getting used to the intensity. After about 70 minutes I think he had some cramp. It’s part of the game. He just has to keep going. It was an important goal for us and now on to New Year’s Day.
“I think he runs almost everywhere. At times on the left, at times in the middle.
“He’s a very intelligent player who is so comfortable on the ball. He finds space between the lines and can be very important.
“He wants to be important in terms of goals and assists. The work rate he puts in and the chances he creates is what I think is even more important. I am really pleased for him, like the rest of the team. You saw the celebrations. Everyone is so happy for him.”
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Liverpool are now unbeaten in seven games in all competitions and have won four games in a row. However, Van Dijk acknowledged the team still need to improve if they hope to keep climbing up the Premier League table.
“It’s something we have to improve,” the defender said of Liverpool’s game management. “It’s about training and using our experiences to get better at dealing with situations like today.
“We will analyse and speak about it. I know it sounds easy but it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s a process and we have to keep trying to do it. If it was easy then we would have sorted it already.”
