Virgil van Dijk accepts that Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford has taken on “massive” proportions, with both teams’ stuttering start to the season.
And while the Reds defender believes bitter rivals Manchester United may be suffering a crisis of confidence after two embarrassing defeats to open the campaign, he knows this is the perfect game for them to halt ‘crisis’ talk. He also believes it comes at the right time for his own club to shrug off two draws in their opening two games, which could see them stand seven points Manchester City by the time they play on Monday night.
“It's massive but it's not about making a statement, we want to win and do everything that's possible to win there,” the Dutch star explained. "This year they've had a difficult start and we've not had the best start that we wanted either, so it will be interesting. Obviously they're not in the best situation confidence-wise probably, but it's the perfect game to turn it around for them.
“But we're looking at ourselves and we want to make sure we're ready for it and we are going to work hard this week again.”
Van Dijk believes Liverpool ’s mentality will be the key to the showdown with their long term rivals, in a game which promises to be one of the most explosive of the season. They showed spirit to come back with 10 men against Crystal Palace - and all that after an injury-hit week boss Jurgen Klopp described as “crazy - it was as though we had a witch in the building”.
And van Dijk is hoping players such as Jordan Henderson, Joe Gomez, Roberto Firmino, Kostas Tsimikas, Naby Keita, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones will all be back to full fitness to give more depth to a squad that looks threadbare with an injury list that ran in double figures.
“We have to deal with it, it's part of football, unfortunately,” he said of the injuries. We have to recover and then focus from Wednesday on United. It's going to be a tough game away again but hopefully we get some players back and get a good performance and just be positive and think about winning.
“It's a big game, a game on its own. We are all looking forward to that. Obviously we are disappointed but we'll prepare well and get a good performance.”
Liverpool will definitely be without Joel Matip, Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain and the suspended Darwin Nunez, and the defender knows United will be at full cry to try and exploit that.
“They are a good team in my opinion, they have good players all over the pitch. And over the years it’s proven tough for us to win there, though last year was a great result, we can't deny it! This week we showed a lot of good spirit and fight in training, and we gave to bring that to the game on Monday.”
