Dejan Lovren has revealed how he and the entire Liverpool team are helping club-record signing Virgil van Dijk at Anfield.
Van Dijk joined Liverpool from Southampton in the winter transfer window for a club record £75million and amidst a fair share of problems, has dished out some impressive performances. He marked his Reds debut with a goal in the Merseyside derby win over Everton in the FA Cup last month.
The Dutchman was partnered by Lovren in last Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League thrashing of FC Porto. And while Lovren admits Van Dijk has done well so far, he says that he is ready to help the Dutch international in every possible way to overcome the hurdles that have hindered his early Anfield career.
“I think he is doing quite well,” Lovren was quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“He will do better and better every time (he plays) and he is a top defender. It’s still fresh, everything for him is new. We are still adapting to each other.
“He has all the backup from us. We are helping him and we haven’t had many times to play with each other and to be honest only had a couple of training sessions together (before the first game) so it’s still an adaptation. But I think we have done it quite well.
“You need to have time for adaptation. Players are young, but expectation is big. It’s difficult sometimes to cope with that. We need to support him and stick with him even in tough times like with me in the beginning.
“When I came here, it was a little bit rough but he is a big man, a big guy who believes in himself and that’s the most important thing.”
Van Dijk’s arrival was expected to restrict Lovren’s game time at Anfield and while the Croatian has come good in the recent few months, he recognises squad rotation is important as the club are fighting for winning the Champions League and achieving a top-four finish in the league this campaign.
Lovren added: “When you’re fit you want to play every game. But with the games week in week out, it’s not possible to play every game at your best level.
“Some changes are important and the manager knows when a player is fully fit or he’s a little bit tired. He has done it quite well with all these rotations.
“We learned from last year that you can’t keep all the same players (playing). Somebody will break and we will have many injuries. This season we have managed it quite well.”
We are back in action on Saturday against West Ham in the Premier League and it is highly likely to see Lovren and Van Dijk start again in the heart of our defence.
