Virgil van Dijk insists he can handle the pressure of being the most expensive defender of all-time following his mixed start to life at Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s side shelled out £75m to sign Van Dijk from Southampton at the start of the year but the Netherlands international has endured an eventful few matches for the Reds.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher even suggested Van Dijk needs to lose weight in a bid to rediscover his best form, but the 26-year-old has defended his performances and insists he will not buckle under the pressure.
“I know because I made such a big step, for a lot of money, everything is going to be analysed,” The Daily Mail quote Van Dijk as saying. “No one is going to look at the good things you do. Everybody is going to watch the bad things and that is how it is.
“But I will discuss it with the people who want to make me better, who can make me better, and that is the manager and the players around me. If they think it is right then that is the way forward.
“It is a strength of mine to not really bother too much when people have their opinions, especially negative opinions. I know when I am doing it well and exactly when I am doing it wrong. No one will talk about my performance [against Spurs] in general. We defended very well, had two penalties against us with a lot of question marks around them, but no one is going to talk about that.
“But I know that as a team we did very well against one of the best strikers in Europe [Harry Kane].”
After scoring the winner in front of the Kop on his Liverpool debut in the Merseyside Derby, Van Dijk has only featured in three of the subsequent five matches and was on the bench in their thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester City.
In fact, Liverpool have only won one of the four matches Van Dijk has played, losing to Swansea and West Brom in that time.
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