25 December 2023 , 22:30
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Virgil van Dijk claims Liverpool are back in the groove to bring more success to Anfield.
He knows clubs only win the big prizes if they are consistently good and feels Jurgen Klopp’s team is back at that mark.
As the Reds reach the halfway point in their league campaign with a trip to Burnley, Van Dijk put his finger on the difference from last season’s letdown.
“Consistency is the most difficult thing in football,” said the Liverpool captain. “We’re in December, there are still so many games to play.
“We have to keep going and keep the consistency that brings us success. You never know, we just take each game as it comes.
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“The title race isn’t now - in February or March we can see who is pushing on for the title. Now we have to make sure we stay above, in the higher part of the rankings. With consistency, we have the quality to do that, but consistency is the most difficult thing to achieve as players and as a team.
“At the moment it’s going fine and we have to try to keep winning.”
Liverpool missed the chance to be Christmas No.1 when held by leaders Arsenal at Anfield on Saturday and have no senior left-backs after Kostas Tsimikas broke his right collarbone, joining Andy Robertson on the sidelines.
Van Dijk believes Liverpool are better equipped to launch a title charge (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)Van Dijk was determined to be positive about the draw, saying: “We have one more point than we started with. There were so many good things in the game and things we have to improve, but we have a very short time to dwell on things.”
Joe Gomez performed well as a makeshift left-back and Klopp will wrap him in cotton wool to protect him until Robertson returns from a dislocated shoulder next month.
“Can Joe play all the games now until I don’t know when?” said the Reds boss. “Robbo will be back and Kostas will be out for a long while. I don’t know, we’ll have to see.
“You have injuries sometimes and you have to accept all of them, but a broken collarbone is really bad because it takes so long to heal.”