Inside Virgil van Dijk's role in Florian Wirtz's £116m Liverpool transfer - as Reds captain claims the club is the 'place to be' in European football
The Reds have spent £295million so far this summer in a statement transfer window with Hugo Ekitike the latest addition. After jetting into Hong Kong on Thursday, the France striker trained with his new team-mates for the first time on Friday.
Wirtz has also been settling in nicely after his £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen and Van Dijk said: 'When I joined the club I said it, I don't think there 's a better place to be than Liverpool.
'I really feel that way. We had a fantastic season and I feel like this can only become better.
'When Florian spoke to the club and certain players, I spoke to him as well a little bit, I'm sure he got a feel for it. And then he made a decision.
'Coming here, he can really make an impact in my opinion. But it's also down to him in terms of showing it every single day. He's getting there and it's good to see.
'I said to him, 'Liverpool is the place to be'.'
Van Dijk sat down with new boy Ekitike on Thursday evening at Liverpool's plush team hotel on the Kowloon waterfront and the captain told him that the hard work starts now – and standards must be high from day one.
'The message is 'the hard work starts now'. That's it. You're playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world now. The pressure will be on you. You need to show your qualities.
'Listen, there are no guarantees in terms of retaining the title or winning more trophies.
'But improving the squad is always a good thing. Adding quality helps to raise the standard in both training and games hopefully. We've all seen it over the years, the team which is the most consistent during the season wins titles, and that's the aim we have.
'We want to show our quality in every single aspect of the game. That's a very tough job. If it was easy then you'd have a lot of teams up there until the end.'
On a personal note, this summer has been time to reset the mind and body after a gruelling 12 months for Van Dijk. Last year, he did not go on the pre-season tour due to his involvement in the European Championship with Holland, and barely had any time off.
Asked if the extended pre-season will help him, he said: 'To be absolutely honest, I think what's more important is the break I got.
'I had something like four and a half weeks which is the longest I've had since...... I can't even remember.
'To have this big pre-season now means we can work on so many aspects of our play which we can improve. Defending, attacking, set-pieces, build up. That's the main thing we've trying to do.'
Liverpool play AC Milan in Hong Kong on Saturday, 20 years on from their famous meeting in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul. Arne Slot's men then jet to Tokyo for the second leg of the tour, where they will play Yokohama F Marinos on Wednesday.
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