Dirk Kuyt has praised Jurgen Klopp for the way he handled Virgil Van Dijk’s injury comeback for Liverpool.
Speaking to Goal, the former Liverpool forward said Klopp built up Van Dijk’s playing time perfectly after missing 10 months of football.
“I think it was a very good decision from Jurgen to play him just once a week at the start of the season,” said Kuyt. “You could see he was growing.”
“And then when Jurgen trusted him to play twice a week, his level just went up and up. He’s now right up there at his best.”
Klopp probably hasn’t received enough credit for his management of the return of one of his key players. Van Dijk famously wants to play every game he can, as he showed when turning out for Holland’s friendly with Germany last night.
But the Liverpool boss managed his centre-back’s minutes carefully. Both Liverpool and Van Dijk are now seeing the rewards from that patience.
What else did Dirk say
Kuyt was also keen to praise Van Dijk himself for the way he has recovered to being back to his top level.
The 41-year-old is delighted to have a player from his old club captaining his country. Kuyt himself had a distinguished international career, winning 104 caps and playing in a World Cup final for Oranje.
“To have a captain like Virgil van Dijk, a Liverpool man, it’s fantastic,” said Kuyt.
“Hopefully he can stay fit, because he’s such an important figure on and off the pitch. He’s doing great.”
Kuyt, who retired in 2018, says that he still watches every game for the team he played 286 times for. That makes him well placed to judge Virgil’s current level.
“I follow every Liverpool game, of course, and to see him come back like he has, it’s so impressive. It’s not easy to come back from such a tough injury.”
Like he was never away
Van Dijk’s return to playing in every game has been a long time coming. But now that he’s back fully fit again, it isn’t a surprise to see the 30-year-old feature whenever possible.
Prior to his injury, Van Dijk had played in every Premier League game for Liverpool two years on the spin.
The centre-back played 50 games in both 2018/19 and 2019/20. It’s no coincidence that those two campaigns ended in Champions League and Premier League glory for Liverpool.
Klopp’s team have a minimum of 12 games remaining this season. Van Dijk has played 38 times for Liverpool this season. It’s feasible that he could play in all 12 of those games, which would put him at 50 appearances for a third time in four seasons.
Liverpool fans will be hoping that he makes it to 54 games. That would mean The Reds had made it to the FA Cup and Champions League finals. As long as he’s fit and in this kind of form, Van Dijk will of course play. He is simply un-droppable.
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