Jurgen Klopp says he will give Virgil van Dijk plenty of time to return to his best for Liverpool, while lauding Fabinho’s recent improvements.
Van Dijk returned to the side in last week’s 2-0 win over Newcastle, but he was also in the starting lineup that lost 5-2 to Real Madrid on Tuesday night, the Reds’ first European defeat at home.
Prior to his return last Saturday at St James’ Park, Netherlands captain Van Dijk had missed the previous seven-and-a-half games after being withdrawn at halftime of a 3-1 loss at Brentford on January 2.
Klopp says he has no worries about the £75m defender returning to his best form over time, saying: “I think differently because I give people time..
The outside world does not give people time. This is a strange world. Not just football, but everything. We don’t have time for anything anymore; we know everything right away, and we Google everything. It’s now or never. I come from another era.
“I understand that everyone requires time to develop and return to their best. Everything in life requires time, which everyone accepts for themselves but not for others. That is completely irrelevant to me.
“But, once again, it’s fine. We are judged as part of the overall show.
That is completely normal behavior. We played two good games, and you will record Virgil van Dijk as the “best Virgil van Dijk ever.””
Fabinho was restored to the Liverpool team for the 2-0 win over Everton on February 13 after a noticeable slump in form saw him start three consecutive games on the bench.
“I think Fabinho is now completely different from what we saw four or five weeks ago,” Klopp added. “We must maintain that now.
It’s like [he is playing at] 80% but he was not at all a problem in the game (against Real Madrid), he looked a lot better but had to play a lot.
So it’s not like it’s click click click he’s back, play on, or
“Stefan Bajectic and Jordan Henderson can play it, but when Fabinho is at his best, having him there is critical because he sorts or used to sort a lot of situations for us. That was fine in the previous games.
“‘Did Fabinho recover from an injury?’ No! It could happen at any time. A drop in form that no one expected, and you look at it and think, ‘OK, it will be interesting to watch’. But, when there is no time, everything in a business requires time. That is the issue..
Nobody is thinking about this stuff when everything is clicking, flying, bam bam bam, and Alisson’s ball hits Vinicius Junior and goes into the stands instead of the net.
“And then we talk about how this game develops, but that is for another time. Let me put it this way: I was not surprised when the ball went in. But I see the light, which is why I’m not in such a bad mood.”
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