Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk has called on his team to stay calm at this point in the title race. Things have gone downhill for Liverpool lately as a draw against Everton saw them slip to second place in the league table.
Speaking to Liverpool’s official site, the Dutchman said, “Stay calm. Personally, I am always calm because you can’t get influenced by the media or by fans from different clubs or what else. You just need to stay calm. There are nine games left and anything is possible. I think a lot of people forget [there’s a quarter of the season to go]. One point is not a lot, but it is something because it’s Man City. We’ll see.
The next challenge for us is Burnley and it’s going to be a tough one, so we’ll see after that how it is going to be. We have Champions League coming up, we have the international break coming up, so there are so many things that can change over the time. We’ll see what it brings us.
It’s very important [to get a win against Burnley]. At this stage, it’s the most important thing – to get the three points. It doesn’t really matter how, but we want to show good football as well. That’s what we’re going to try but if that doesn’t work, we’ll try with hard work and hopefully be able to get the points.”
Speaking of the match against Burnley, van Dijk said, “We know how tough they can be. When we played them away, it was a very difficult game. They’re very direct, with a lot of hard work, they put good pressure on opponents, so it’s going to be tough – but we want to show why we’re in this race and make sure we’re going to be more than ready to give everything for the three points.
Burnley deserve all of the respect they get because they are a good team, they work hard, the manager has a specific way of playing that suits them very well, so it’s going to be very tough. But I know it’s going to be very tough for them as well. If we are at more than 100 per cent, like we want to be, then we have a great chance to get the points, but you still need to be at that level. We want to be at that level, so let’s just show it.”
