“Everyone noticed that”- Reds superstar reveals how triggered him prior to Anfield switch

Virgil van Dijk reveals the moment Jurgen Klopp left him ‘triggered’ before his move to Liverpool

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has been at the club since January 2018 and since then, has won every trophy the English top-tier has to offer alongside winning the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

Signed for a club-record fee of £75m, the Dutchman has proved to be worth every single penny the club have spent on his services. The Dutch international played on the South coast of England for Southampton for three years before switching to Merseyside.

The former Celtic player has lost just two league games at Anfield, one for Southampton and very recently against Leeds United for Liverpool. However, he reveals a strange incident which left him ‘triggered’ when he played against the Reds for Southampton.

The Reds manager Jurgen Klopp has a pre-match ritual wherein he stands right on the halfway line during the warmups and observes the visiting team. When Virgil came as Southampton’s captain, he was left ‘triggered’ by the same and here is what he said on The Overlap

“I think, for a fact, you’re going to have a good warm-up. You’re going to make sure every pass you make is [good], you don’t want to give him the feeling that he might go in and say ‘listen, he had a bad warm-up, you have to get on him.’

“I remember when I played my last game [at Anfield] for Southampton and we lost 3-0, he was also looking and it definitely triggered me a little bit. I think everyone noticed that.”

It is certainly a good way of playing mind games with the opposite side that Klopp does by observing the visitors. Coming back to the present day though, both Virgil and the gaffer have been under immense pressure this season so far.

Klopp’s mind games

Liverpool are struggling in the ninth position on the points table, and a UCL spot presently seems quite a stretch at this point in time for Jurgen and his boys. Van Dijk has also been under immense scrutiny for his form of late.

However, the season is not over yet and the Reds could still make the top four if they start to work things around from this point onwards. Hopefully, Klopp’s pre-match rituals work their wonder against Tottenham this weekend as well.

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Post the Tottenham fixture, Liverpool will play Derby County in the EFL Cup and Southampton in the league again before the FA closes the league until 26th December for the commencement of the World Cup later this month.