Virgil Van Dijk Hails Alisson After Debut

One record-breaking signing praises another.

It was an uneventful debut for Liverpool’s record-breaking goalkeeper signing, Alisson Becker, but that hasn’t dimmed the excitement over him. Included in this number is Liverpool’s last record-breaking defensive signing, Virgil van Dijk, who praised the shot-stopper after his first competitive game and first clean sheet with the team.

“He is very good. We speak a lot. He’s very vocal and that helps. It helps me and everyone in the back-line,” van Dijk said. “His presence is very good as well. He has a lot of qualities on the ball and that helps us playing. We’ve worked on it the whole pre-season and we’ll keep practising. There’s still a lot to do.”

About the first team’s opening game, the Dutchman continued, “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] it’s just one game. We had a good pre-season with good results and games where we’ve played very well but we can do a lot better and it’s just the start. The key is we need to be very consistent and do it every game.”

While Liverpool had the best possible start against West Ham, van Dijk is correct that there were areas that could use improvement. Alisson won’t always get so little to do on the pitch, and his next hurdle will be Crystal Palace on Monday when the Reds head to Selhurst Park to visit our old friend Roy Hodgson.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com