Virgil Van Dijk: “A Good Comeback - Very Positive”
The Liverpool captain was proud of the fight his side showed, coming back twice to earn a draw with Fulham despite playing down a man for most of the match.
Going down an early sucker-punch of a goal and then down a man early in the match is typically a death knell for a team. This Liverpool side is no typical team, however. The Reds twice fought back to tie the match up against Fulham on Saturday despite seeing Andy Robertson sent off for a Denial of Goal Scoring Opportunity foul in just the 17th minute. After the match, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk praised the fight his side showed during an interview with Sky Sports.
“Obviously [it’s] a good comeback – that’s very positive. It’s disappointing obviously to come [in] with 10 men but the fight we showed… we kept going.”
“We kept trying and we kept trying to find the free man in order to create chances. It could’ve been more but eventually we take the point and move on.”
On his team’s approach to the game after going down to 10 men so early, he said:
The Dutch defender discussed Liverpool’s approach after being reduced to 10 men, which mostly boiled down to staying calm. Rather than stay in a defensive shell, looking to limit damage and maybe grab a goal on the counter against a Fulham side that has caused problems for many other sides, the Reds instead were confident in possession and mounted a furious assault on the opposing goal in search of all three points.
“We stay calm. Obviously it sounds easier than it is to do, but it was always going to be tough against them. They make it tough for a lot of teams and we’ve seen it last year when they came here and last week when they played Arsenal they made it tough as well.”
“We had to play a very good game. Unfortunately you come [in] 1-0 down [and] a red card. We have to turn it around and keep fighting and keep trying to play your football, and that’s what we tried in the second half. It could’ve led to more but unfortunately it didn’t.”
In the end, Liverpool were the better side and were truly unlucky not to finish the day with a win. Despite playing the vast majority of the match down a man, the Reds maintained over 60% of the possession, and generated a whopping 2.13 expected goals according to FotMob. It was one way traffic at the end, with Liverpool being the aggressor as the match waned.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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