Despite Virgil van Dijk’s absence being a massive loss for the Champions of England, Liverpool FC have coped up well without the colossal Dutch centre-back in recent victories over Ajax and Sheffield United, expressed Jurgen Klopp in his pre-game interview ahead of his side hosting Midtjylland in the Champions League.
Van Dijk was taken out by Jordan Pickford in a nasty challenge and had to be subsequently withdrawn off the pitch at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby, with later tests revealing that the Dutchman had sustained an ACL injury, ruling him out of the first-team action in the Liverpool FC shirt for 7-8 months.
Despite his absence being a rather unfortunate event for the Merseyside giants, Klopp voiced admiration for his players in stepping up to the challenge of ensuring solid defensive displays in their last two victories across all competitions.
‘Every team in the world would miss Virgil van Dijk.
‘He is the best centre back in the world. You play a game he gets injured and you play three days later so of course that’s difficult to do because all the boys played together with him and we didn’t have long for them to get used to playing without him.
‘For that we did pretty well and that will get better 100 per cent because unfortunately everything in life takes time and defending takes time.
‘We expect not perfection but not too far away from perfection. Everyone needs time to replace a massive person or player and so far we’ve done pretty well.’
In Van Dijk’s absence, Fabinho has been slotted at the heart of the four-man backline by Klopp, who had been left impressed by the Brazillian’s showing as a centre-back in last week’s 1-0 victory away at Ajax.
