Van Dijk claims Liverpool ‘need a lot of midfielders’ after denying negative consequence of late transfer swoop
Virgil van Dijk has denied that Liverpool youngsters Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho could suffer if the club address their ‘need’ to sign more midfielders.
Just a few days remain of the transfer window and the idea of Liverpool strengthening in midfield still lingers. After adding Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay to their squad, it was thought there would be no more signings.
However, a few injuries in midfield have exposed a lack of depth in that territory. Hence, it cannot be ruled out that Liverpool will go back into the market before the September 1 deadline.
On the flipside, there are concerns over how a potential signing would affect the development of young talents like Carvalho and Elliott. Both of the 19-year-olds scored in Liverpool’s 9-0 win over Bournemouth at the weekend.
After that game, though, defender Van Dijk claimed Liverpool need many midfielders for their style to work. And he does not think some of their younger options would suffer as a result.
The Dutchman said: “I don’t think they (Elliott and Carvalho) will stop progressing (if we sign someone).
“If you look at the games we play, the amount of games we play, we need a lot of midfielders.
“Midfielders are the engine of our team. They win so many balls for us. We need a lot of midfielders. You see the games we play, we also rotate a lot in midfield, apart from Fab(inho) I think. We need everyone.
Van Dijk claims Harvey Elliott back at pre-injury levels
“I’m very impressed with both. I think Harvey (was impressing) before his injury already. Now he’s showing the same stuff as before in my opinion.
“I was impressed with Fabio as well. I said it I think in pre-season, obviously I didn’t know him before, but I think he can be really, really good for us and as a club as well.
“You need maturity at times, especially when things aren’t going well like the last couple of weeks. These guys have the right mentality that we need. They showed it today, I think they showed it against (Manchester) United also.
“Harvey was good in my opinion. Fabio came on and played very well too. They will have good moments and they will also have moments they have to learn from. That’s how football works.
“We’re not robots, we’re not perfect and everyone expecting that we are.”
Liverpool are next in action when they host Newcastle United on Wednesday. Van Dijk will likely be a starter in defence, but it remains to be seen what parts Elliott and Carvalho could play.
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