Reaction'It's a process, we need to keep going' - Virgil van Dijk on victory at Forest
Virgil van Dijk wants Liverpool to 'keep going' to find their 'highest level' following Sunday's dramatic win at Nottingham Forest.
The Reds secured a late 1-0 result at the City Ground in the Premier League to make it three victories and clean sheets in a row.
Alexis Mac Allister's strike from close range in the 97th minute earned the points for Arne Slot's side, who also saw the midfielder have a goal ruled out for handball via VAR moments earlier.
"We want to play our best football, and I think at times in the games we are definitely doing that," Van Dijk told Liverpoolfc.com.
"But obviously we are still looking for improvement and we are not perfect. We are human beings and we want to do our best for the club.
"We want to be performing on the absolute highest level, and we need each other at their best and it's a process, but we keep going and focus on the next one. It will be another difficult one at the weekend again [versus West Ham United], so onto the next."
Read the rest of the post-match interview with the captain below…
On whether it felt like the 'biggest win' of the season...
It feels definitely nice to win here. It's a very difficult ground, in my opinion, to come. A very poor first half from all of us with and without the ball. I think you saw the desire to not concede, that was obviously maybe the only positive thing. I think in the second half we turned it around and we were much more comfortable on the ball and without the ball as well.
We know Forest can be dangerous from set-pieces and the quality they have with the confidence they had from their midweek win. I think we did well, especially in the second half. At the end it's just a great feeling to win and be on the good side of a late winner for once in a long time.
On whether being 'braver' on the ball made the difference in the second half…
It's a combination of that, I think. Obviously, it all starts with winning your battles, winning the challenges and when you have the ball make the right decisions. It's not always easy to do that, especially in a first half where a lot of players are still fresh and they run and they press and go one-v-one and if you are late in challenges or in possession or lose the ball too easily then they create momentum.
We did that much better in the second half and we found our triangles; we rotated well in the middle and had our wingers a lot of times in the one-v-ones. I don't think we created real clear-cut chances, but obviously Hugo [Ekitike]'s was massive and he should have scored. In the end we got the winner and that's the most important thing.
On players putting their bodies on the line towards the end...
Forest will always make it tough for you. We can't forget what they did to us at Anfield, so we had to show a reaction and I'm glad we won here. I'm glad we won at a difficult ground with great fans and a good atmosphere, especially when the goal was disallowed and the fans got behind them to create more momentum. The way we reacted to that is a big credit to the guys.
On having an 'elite mentality' to win the game after the disallowed goal…
Yeah, 100 per cent. The game isn't over until it's over. We have the quality to decide games, and we needed a couple of long throws from Joey [Gomez], but in the end that ball from Dom [Szoboszlai] was quality, I was just onside and Macca just had to finish it off, so happy days.