Virgil van Dijk paid tribute to Liverpool’s midfield general Fabinho after he produced another outstanding showing to help down Manchester City on Sunday.
The Brazilian set the tone for a dominant display against the reigning Premier League champions at Anfield with a thunderous long-distance strike after just six minutes.
From there, he helped the Reds overpower a star-studded City midfield line-up as they ran out deserved 3-1 victors to take control of the title race.
And his contributions certainly didn’t go unnoticed by Van Dijk, who appreciates his colleague’s habit of ‘cleaning up’.
The Dutchman said of his team-mate: “He has been fantastic.
“He has been cleaning up so many things and so many dangerous moments and everyone is playing their part in the success we have at the moment.
“Sometimes it gets [overlooked] what he does; it is important for him and us to get the goal.”
Fabinho’s early opener arguably came against the run of play, with Pep Guardiola’s team having made an encouraging start to proceedings.
But by the 13th minute the visitors found themselves two down - a crucial double blow for the hosts to land, Van Dijk believes.
He added: “It looked like a shaky start, you give four set-pieces away and you have to find a rhythm again.
“I think after 20 minutes we got back into it, the two goals helped massively and it is a proper knock for them as well.
“Towards the end of the first half we were the better team and the second half, we knew they would come more and it was massive for us to score the third one.
“In the end you have to drop deep to make sure we aren’t going to drop points.”
Liverpool’s win saw them move nine points clear of City in first place and eight points ahead of nearest challengers Leicester City and Chelsea.
But nobody at Anfield is getting carried away just yet.
Van Dijk explained: “Obviously, we are in a very good situation. That is something we can’t deny.
“We all feel and we know the season is too long to proper celebrate that we are nine points ahead or something and we won’t.
“The mentality we have is we just have to carry on and keep doing better than we did today. That is the mentality we should take into every game ahead of us.”
