Virgil van Dijk doesn’t think a potential new midfielder will block Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho’s pathway at Liverpool after the pair both impressed in the Reds’ record-breaking 9-0 victory over AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
With Jurgen Klopp’s squad continuing to be decimated by injury during the opening weeks of the season, particularly in midfield, the England Under-21s international retained his starting role against the Cherries and doubled Liverpool ’s lead with his first Premier League goal after just six minutes in an impressive first half display.
Meanwhile, with the Reds’ 5-0 up at the break, Elliott was withdrawn at the interval as a precaution after suffering a knock, with his former Fulham team-mate Carvalho coming on in his place and marking the occasion with his first goal for the club.
Despite the pair’s contributions, Klopp is still in the market for a new midfielder, having admitted last week that Liverpool have changed their transfer stance in response to recent injuries, and will look to strengthen in the engine room before the window closes on Thursday.
And while Van Dijk, who also scored in the victory, hinted that he would welcome the arrival of a new midfielder at Anfield, he was also full of praise for both Elliott and Carvalho after they helped the Reds record their highest ever Premier League win.
“I don’t think they (Elliott and Carvalho) will stop progressing (if we sign someone),” Van Dijk told reporters. “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 I think. We need everyone.
“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 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.”
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