Van Dijk: This is what Jackie and Araujo lack to form a strong partnership
A strong start
Virgil van Dijk has hailed new arrivals Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo after their impressive showings against Como. The Liverpool defender warned, though, that forging a solid partnership at the heart of the defence will take time.
Both men played 45 minutes in Liverpool's final pre-season friendly on Sunday afternoon, Jacquet grabbing his side's second in the 2-0 win.
The Frenchman caught the eye against Cesc Fabregas's side on his first appearance since dislocating his shoulder with Rennes in February. Araujo, who joined Liverpool on a season-long loan from Barcelona last week, replaced him at the start of the second half.
Van Dijk said after the match, in comments to "ESPN": "I think Jacquet did well, and so did Ronald. It's the beginning, and a good beginning, so hopefully he continues in that way. You build relationships by playing matches. I wouldn't say it's the only way, but matches are completely different from training."
He added: "Jacquet's English, I would say it's a little better than Ronald's, but ultimately we are all pretty good footballers. We can see and feel certain situations relating to how to defend against particular situations."
"But clearly you need to form a bond between you, and that takes some time," he continued. "In my opinion, that's completely normal, but hopefully we can get there as quickly as possible."
Van Dijk went on: "As I said, I think Jacquet did well. I think he came off the pitch feeling a little tired, but that's completely normal when you play your first 45 minutes after a long period out. Now it's up to him to recover. We'll be back on the pitch tomorrow morning, then we'll start work in preparation to face Newcastle. St James' Park will always be difficult."
The Liverpool captain added: "What I see is that there is no team in world football that can play at full intensity for 90 minutes. Clearly, at a certain stage, there will be some moments where players, or all of us, reach a point where we feel a bit tired. Then we have to make sure we stay compact and find the right moment to press again. I think we did that much better than we did in the last match."
"Clearly everyone is eager to go and press and maintain the intensity of the performance, but football is a team game, and we need everyone together so we can do that," he continued. "And this happens in phases during a match."
"But if you do it at the right time and the right moment, you won't need to run as much as we sometimes do," he went on. "That means that at certain times, when there's a throw-in or a free kick, perhaps you have to take it more quickly in order to keep the ball a little longer. But it's an ongoing process and we are working on it."
He concluded: "Against Como, there was definitely an improvement from my point of view. Clearly, when you play the previous two matches and go 2-0 up then throw away your lead, I think that's something that cannot happen again. I'm happy that we produced a much better performance in this respect."
