Virgil van Dijk says everyone at Liverpool is focused on finishing 2025 strongly after Saturday’s 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur lifted them to fifth in the Premier League.
After Xavi Simons was sent off in the first half, second-half goals from Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike put Liverpool in control before a late Richarlison strike set up a tense finale.
Spurs continued to press for an equaliser even after Cristian Romero was also dismissed, but Arne Slot’s side held on to extend their unbeaten run to six games.
Liverpool host bottom-placed Wolves on December 27 before welcoming Leeds United on New Year’s Day, and captain Virgil van Dijk has urged his teammates to end the year in style.
“The aim is to try to win every game ahead of us,” Van Dijk said. “Unfortunately this season has had a lot of difficult moments in terms of results and performances as well.
“But all we can try to do is get better. We’re at a club where we have a lot of opportunities to show what we can do. Now we focus on Christmas and being with the family, and then focus on Wolves.
“Winning more, getting results, is always positive. Losing games, especially at a club like Liverpool, is always bad. For us it’s about staying calm. Taking each game as it comes. Today we won. Now we have a couple of days off.
“We will recover and then we will focus on Wolves. It will be a tough game. I saw their game against Spurs.
“Wolves will make it difficult for us and we have to be ready for that. First we have Christmas. Being with your family and being healthy are the most important things in life.
“The immediate reaction coming off was that it was a chaotic last five to 10 minutes.
“It wasn’t great but to get the three points is massive. There was nothing wrong up to us conceding a goal. We need to analyse the last part but personally I’m very pleased and it’s on to the next one.
“When you concede a goal and their fans get behind them like they did, it’s never easy to make the right decisions and find the right solutions.
“That’s something we can improve but I don’t think it’s worrying. It’s a transition and we need to keep getting better. [The ending of the game] is something we will discuss within the squad.”
On Isak, Van Dijk added: “Injuries unfortunately are part of football and hopefully with Alex it’s not too bad.
“He scored a great goal. It’s too soon after the game to know (the extent of it). He will need to be assessed.
“Hopefully the injuries won’t be too bad. We all saw how bad it looked with Alex but hopefully it won’t be too bad.”
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