Virgil van Dijk on his long road to the top, season struggles and rediscovering his best

It’s how he is. A thoughtful, positive man who takes the lead. Who believes in the little gestures as well as the big ones; who wants to “make a difference with the right example, kick negativity out, and hate, and bring more love”.

The pitch takes him back to boyhood games on the Cruyff court on the Kesterenlaan in the Haagse Beemden area of Breda, an oasis of play surrounded by a vast estate of 1980s social housing, where the football was feisty and skilful and it was always “winner stays on”.

He talks about his journey from there, the frustrating youth career at Willem II who, after he had spent ten years in their system, declined to offer a contract, and about the drastic move from southern Holland to the country’s northern tip, where he would try his luck at FC Groningen.

“It was the equivalent of living all your life in Bournemouth then moving to Newcastle on your own,” he says. “I was 18, and I didn’t even start in the first team where all my mates – I lived together with a couple of other players – were playing. I was the only one who started in the under-23s. I didn’t have my driving licence, so had to go on a bicycle to training. It was all fine. It all made me who I am. But it was not easy.”

From there the route was Groningen to Celtic to Southampton to Liverpool – still no meteoric rise, rather a progression in hard-earned steps. “In the end, with the transfer to Liverpool and winning everything that was out there, a dream came true,” Van Dijk says. “But sometimes you remind yourself that it definitely wasn’t easy and [football] is never anything you should take for granted.”

Reaching back into the journey and drawing on the perspective it gave him has been useful to Van Dijk this season. Liverpool have had brilliant days and days of dropping so far from their normal standards you wondered whether you were watching a hoax. Van Dijk, after five imperious years as their rock, has, for the first time in his Anfield career, suffered dips in form, and criticism.

He rationalises this with calmness and honesty. “No one is immune to criticism,” he says. “If someone said that, they are lying. But when the criticism is there and you know it is right, the only thing you can do is keep your head down and focus on improving.

“I know my performance has been going like the team has been going – up and down. I know I’m one of the players who is looked at, that I set a high standard over the last five years, that it’s normal to be criticised. The only thing I can do is block the noise out and focus on how I deal with certain situations to be better.

“Over the past five years, excluding the year of my injury [the 2020-21 season, when he played only seven games before being ruled out for the remainder with cruciate damage], I’ve been playing every three or four days to such a consistent level. I’m trying to get back to that – and I will get back it. I’m not worried about that.”

The signs are that it’s happening. In Wednesday’s win away to West Ham United, Van Dijk was his old, smooth, dominant self, building on other fine recent displays against Leeds United, Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A moment in the West Ham game was vintage Van Dijk, demonstrating the blend of brains, athleticism and technique that made him a Ballon D’Or runner-up and the only defender to win Uefa men’s player of the year. The match was poised at 1-1 when West Ham broke and Liverpool players were sucked towards the ball-carrier, Said Benrahma, who was attacking the right side of their box. All except Van Dijk, who noticed Michail Antonio on the other side and, constantly glancing over his shoulder to check on the West Ham striker, Van Dijk covered the centre.

When Benrahma played the ball across he was there to stretch and toe it out for a corner – just as Antonio closed in to try to score.

I’m fascinated to know what his thought processes were.

“As a defender, it’s all about the small details,” he says. “We had a counter-attack against us and I see Benrahma dribbling inside and know if he mis-hits it, it can go across. Those are normally the ones where strikers run in for the second ball and I’m thinking about that. I thought I have to follow [the break] and track, at least, to the back post because there might be a dangerous situation. When the ball arrived it was a bit of quick decision-making: should I clear it to the left – but I wasn’t able to – should I try to hit it against Antonio, or should I try to give it just a little touch, to put it out of play. Which is what I did.

“In the end it paid off and it’s what I said: all about the small margins. The risk factor is obviously the highest as a goalkeeper, but as centre halves it’s the second highest in the team.”

What’s clear from this is the importance, as an elite defender, of having a picture of the play.

“Yes,” he says. “I think you always try to read the game, and that is my strength in some ways. You always try to see what happens next.

“When the opponent has the ball and the striker is making runs in behind, are you going to track them immediately or take into account whether [the opposition] is able to play that pass? Things like that. It’s trying to always be ahead of the game. Sometimes you have to win a challenge but avoiding [having to be in a challenge] is also a nice thing to do.”

Little successes such as foiling Antonio – after which Liverpool went on to win the game 2-1 – are his version of scoring goals, Van Dijk says. He’s 31 and experience makes a defender better, but he adds: “I still think I can learn and improve.”

I tell him about discussing the art of defending with that smiling ogre, Giorgio Chiellini, last season. The Italian said he loves and needs to grip and grapple the striker to be at his best. Van Dijk smiles. “I appreciate any footballer who played at the highest level, and from every defender who has done so there is so much to learn from and take,” he says. “At the end of the day you are unique.

“Chiellini, for example, I have played against many times and he has always been that physical guy and played at such a high level, that that’s his way of being who he is.

“I think, in my way, I have been who I am. Successful as well. Because of the way I play. In many moments you don’t see me a lot in what Chiellini describes, these physical challenges, because I try to read and be a step ahead of others.

“I think that’s also a quality. You try not to be in situations that could make you vulnerable. To do that, it’s how you deal with certain situations beforehand. I can still solve situations with my speed, my physicality, aerial presence. But the best way to deal with things is not be in any problems.”

Van Dijk is an ambassador for Fun Football, a McDonald’s programme providing free coaching and a safe environment to play for thousands of children across the UK.

Thinking back to his grassroots beginning he says: “It’s a great initiative. [On Cruyff court in Kesteren] you played against teams who, you know, drive you mad – against players who are milking things and stuff. That’s part of learning how to deal with that stuff. And ‘winner stays on’. It makes you competitive.

“All that made me who I am today, and also technical-wise – passes, touches, these type of things. We should try to get a bit more of [those games] back into kids’ lives.”

Other initiatives he’s involved in include – along with his wife, Rike – supporting an orphanage in Nepal and the McVeigh Foundation, which helps families and children across Merseyside suffering from cancer. “We like to do a lot of things low key,” he says. “We don’t want to be on the front page, we don’t always want cameras there. But if you can put smiles on people’s faces, how good is that? It starts with yourself, how you can make a difference; and that doesn’t need to be all the time with money. You can make a difference by being who you are and how you express yourself.

“That’s what matters to me, and bringing up my kids [he has four children] as well, because it’s really important, upbringing.”

Liverpool have won their past three games and are unbeaten in five, their best run of the campaign. “I feel like it’s still a work in progress,” Van Dijk says. “But the results are good now. We feel more confident than we have been feeling maybe at times this season. We know there are six games left and we’ll try to win all of them.

“It’s going to be tough, especially with how we’ve been consistency-wise this season, but why not go for it, try to enjoy it, and then we will have a very tough, I’m sure, pre-season. Where we have a lot of sessions to be ready for next season – where we want to improve and know teams around us will improve as well. We have to be ready for a very big fight.”

The adjustment of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s role, which involves the right back stepping into central midfield, means “there are different things asked of me, especially in possession, and I’m enjoying learning. I want to improve, to learn.”

For someone regarded as such a giant of his craft, there is a lack of complacency in Van Dijk. It’s evident when he discusses the talent – from Erling Haaland to Gabriel Jesus to today’s opponent, Harry Kane – he is asked to curb. “I feel the Premier League is quite tough at this point,” he says. “Every week is a different challenge. In my case you could face one striker, two strikers, a false nine and have to adapt. You could face a tall striker, a very opportunistic striker who’s always going in behind, or a guy who always wants the ball and to be involved in the game.

“It’s definitely not easy but you want these challenges and to play against the best.

“The Premier League is the most competitive in the world. It’s a joy.”

Originally published as Virgil van Dijk on his long road to the top, season struggles and rediscovering his best