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Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool acknowledges the fans after the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Arsenal FC at Anfield on May 11, 2025 in Liverpool, England. | Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Like his manager, the Liverpool captain doesn’t think his team’s success came out of thin air
Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk was featured on the Men in Blazers show to speak about his squad’s achievements. Hosts Roger Bennett and Michael Davies asked Van Dijk to explain how new manager Arne Slot managed to build on Jürgen Klopp’s legacy to win a league so quickly into his new tenure, and the captain struggled to find a simple explanation:
I can’t put it on one single thing, to be absolutely honest with you. Obviously we all know the club had to replace a manager that was obviously such an influence on the success that we had throughout all those years.
Not only on the team, I mean, just in terms of the club and the city. He meant so much for all of us. And to replace him was always going to be a big task but I think when the new manager came in, he took it with stride.
He did it together with his staff and it has been an incredible year so far. Even without the proper pre-season, to perform and the way we worked and the small tweaks that we had in terms of in games.
And the way he handled himself as well on and off the pitch, it all contributed to the success that we’ve had. I’m very happy for him and his staff, the guys that you don’t see that much on TV maybe but they put all the hard work in as well. The manager also credits them a lot because that’s how it is.
I wouldn’t say I’m ‘surprised’ about the amount of games that we’ve won because I’ve seen the quality that we have in the team, I’ve seen what we did last year – unfortunately we came short. But it’s still an incredible and amazing achievement that we managed to do this in the way we did it this year.
...I’m unbelievably proud and unbelievably happy – not only for myself but for all the players, for the manager, for everyone connected to the club – that we won the Premier League this year and in the manner we did as well.
We’re going to celebrate [like] crazy and then when pre-season starts again next year then we’ll start from scratch and we’ll go and fight our socks off again hoping to be up there again.
For Van Dijk, it was meaningful that among Slot’s first comments upon his side winning the league was to thank his predecessor in an action that echoed Klopp’s own strong welcoming statement:
I think we live in a world that sometimes things are forgotten quite quickly. So, for him to then think about obviously everything that Jürgen did for us…
Because it’s something I will never forget, the success that we had, the impact that he had on the team and the club – he laid the foundations for us to perform this year the way we performed. And obviously the manager realised that. He has been so important for us.
And obviously now it’s Arne’s time and he took it with stride, like I said. He took it with every success that we can get.
