EPL: Van Dijk back to best; ‘Sad’ did really well at Burnley – Klopp

Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp, hailed the performance of Virgil van Dijk after victory at Burnley.

The Reds won 1-0, with Van Dijk outstanding at the back.

Asked if the Dutchman was back to his best, Klopp said: “Definitely, definitely, you can see it in all movements and everything. We were always convinced that it would happen. He is completely back on track, he is absolutely at his best again and I would say it’s good timing because the decisive part of the season is coming up now. Long may it continue.”

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Sadio Mane also featured for the first time since winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal.

Klopp said: “Sad played really, really well. As I said before [the game], it was not the plan to start him today because we know how intense everything was, but Diogo had a dead leg and couldn’t train yesterday, so we started Sadio.

“Luis has adapted really well but this is a completely different game, like a ‘Welcome to the Premier League’, so we didn’t want to try it if we didn’t need it so that’s why we started like we started – and Sad did really well. He worked incredibly hard and that’s exactly what we expected.”