The centre back of Liverpool Virgil van Dijk believes that the new goalkeeper Alisson Becker will help Liverpool to achieve the objectives in this season.
Football news: Alisson’s calmness and ability on the ball will help Liverpool, says Virgil van Dijk
The Brazilian goalkeeper was a mere spectator in his Premier League debut on Sunday as Liverpool destroyed West Ham 4-0 in their Premier League opener at Anfield.
Alisson was purchased from Roma for £65 million ($83m) and he has already started to show his calmness and presence, which neither Loris Karius nor Simon Mignolet could show in the past two seasons.
Van Dijk believes that even if it is the early days and greater challenges lie ahead, the 25-year-old Brazilian is already making his presence felt.
“Very good”, when the Dutchman was asked about how the Brazilian is settling at the Merseyside. “We speak a lot. He’s very vocal and that helps. It helps me and everyone in the back line. I think his presence is very good as well.
“He has a lot of qualities on the ball that helps get us playing. We’ve worked on it the whole pre-season and we’ll keep practising. There’s still a lot to do.”
Both Van Dijk and Alisson would have to work hand-in-hand if Liverpool has to succeed in this season. Coach Jurgen Klopp believes that his team is “strong enough and wide enough” to challenge for major titles and they have started the season well.
However the centre back from Netherlands, who also captains his national side, is not yet ready to get carried away.
“The most important thing is that we look at ourselves,” he said. “We know that right now we have a great squad. We have a lot of quality players. Everyone who plays for Liverpool has a lot of quality.
“It’s all about being consistent. We want to challenge for any competition. But we must look at ourselves.
“Of course we want to challenge. I do not feel any pressure in that case but we play every game to win, that’s how our mind-set is. Against West Ham our focus was good and now we recover before focusing on Crystal Palace, which is going to be a very tough game.”
He added: “It’s just one game. We had a good pre-season with good results and games where we’ve played very well.
“It was a very good performance, almost complete. Good goals, maybe we should have scored a bit more. Clean sheet, we kept it tight. Something to build on
“But we can do a lot better and it’s just the start. I think the key is we need to be very consistent and do it every game.”