Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk keeping cool over Holland claims0

Virgil van Dijk insists his only focus is on settling into his new surroundings at Liverpool and helping his country through a transitional period.

The £75million Reds investment has been touted as a potential captain by new Holland manager Ronald Koeman as the former Everton boss assembles his players for the international break.

The centre-back is keen to focus on friendlies against England in Amsterdam on Friday and Portugal in Switzerland two days later before allowing his thoughts to turn to a potentially huge couple of weeks when domestic football resumes.

It begins with a trip to struggling Crystal Palace as Liverpool look to strengthen their place in the Premier League top four and is then followed by a Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City – sandwiching the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

“You don’t think about that when you’re heading off with the international team. You’re giving everything for your country, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Van Dijk said, who earlier admitted he had not yet reached his peak at Liverpool.

“It’s a big period for us as a country, we have been in transition, we have a new manager, and it’s going to be totally different now and I’m looking forward to meeting up with the guys. We play England as well, so it’s going to be good.

“We can prepare for that (the Champions League) when the time comes.

“Everybody knows that anyone we get is going to be very hard. Man City is a very good team, very hard to play against and we need to be 100 per cent or even better to beat them over two games.”

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