‘Any team would miss him because he’s the best defender in the world’: Jurgen Klopp insists his Liverpool side have coped ‘as well as possible’ in the absence of injured star Virgil van Dijk
Jurgen Klopp has admitted he has been impressed with how his Liverpool side have coped in the absence of Virgil van Dijk.
Liverpool managed to claim hard-fought victories over Ajax and Sheffield United last week without centre back van Dijk, who has had to have surgery on his knee after suffering a potentially season-ending injury at Everton.
Fabinho, who normally plays as a defensive midfielder, has been tasked with filling in for the injured Dutchman at the back alongside Joe Gomez and has received praise for his performances.
Klopp, who confirmed he will be without Thiago, Naby Keita and Joel Matip for Tuesday night’s Champions League game with Midtjylland, said Liverpool are doing as well as they could without ‘the best defender in the world’.
Speaking at his press conference on Monday, he said: ‘Every team in the world would miss Virgil van Dijk.
‘He is the best centre back in the world. You play a game he gets injured and you play three days later so of course that’s difficult to do because all the boys played together with him and we didn’t have long for them to get used to playing without him.
‘For that we did pretty well and that will get better 100 per cent because unfortunately everything in life takes time.
‘We expect not perfection but not too far from perfection. Everyone needs time to replace a massive person or player and so far we’ve done pretty well.’
The Liverpool boss also insisted that their throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark would not have any inside information, having previously spent a spell working with Tuesday night’s opponents Midtjylland.
He added: ‘I think We are the Thomas Gronnemark group because he also worked with Ajax as well.
‘We saw his influence when we analysed Midtjylland actually. He will be proud. Thomas is a professional, so he won’t tell us the answers about them or what they are doing now. He is a super guy and has helped us a lot.
‘Throw-ins a big part for us because there are a lot of teams who make mistakes during this situation. But it is not the only part for us because we think about a lot.’