The elite mindset of Virgil van Dijk was evident in one comment that he made after Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester United today.
The Reds rocked up at Old Trafford and put on a show for the travelling Kopites, easing to victory over their arch-rivals with a majestic performance.
However, the perfectionist Dutchman was a tad disappointed after the match that the winning margin wasn’t even greater, considering how many opportunities his team created this afternoon.
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As per Fabrizio Romano, when a reporter put it to him that Liverpool ‘could have won 5-0 or 6-0’, Van Dijk candidly replied: “We should have”.
The captain added: “We dominated and should have scored more, but yes, winning 3-0 is a big improvement [from last season].”
Although the Reds had an early Trent Alexander-Arnold goal ruled out for an offside in the build-up, and Dominik Szoboszlai spurned an inviting opportunity to score in the second half, Liverpool actually overperformed on their xG tally of 1.73 today (Sofascore).
Given the measure of dominance that we had over United after half-time in particular, perhaps that much-discussed metric didn’t quite reflect how this match played out, with the home side never really laying a glove on the rampant visitors.
It speaks to Van Dijk’s mentality that, whilst satisfied to have claimed victory, he was adamant that the final score should’ve been even more emphatic.
There’s always scope for improvement in football, even for the best teams in the world, but Liverpool fans certainly won’t be claiming tonight after a resounding won over our arch-rivals, who somehow held us to two draws in the Premier League last season but had no answer to the Arne Slot machine today!
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