Van Dijk: Liverpool ´made it difficult for ourselves´ in Norwich win

Virgil van Dijk stated Liverpool had room for improvement despite a 3-0 win at Norwich City on his long-awaited Premier League return.

Van Dijk was playing a competitive match for the first time since suffering a serious knee injury in a collision with Jordan Pickford during the Merseyside derby against Everton at Goodison Park last October.

Goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino either side of half-time put Liverpool in control before Mohamed Salah established a new Premier League record by scoring for a fifth consecutive opening weekend.

The Reds were able to close out a clean sheet but a final Opta expected goals (xG) calculation of 1.6-1.4 in Norwich’s favour suggested Liverpool rode their luck at times and Van Dijk certainly thought this was the case.

“Winning here 3-0 sounds comfortable but at times we made it difficult for ourselves,” he told Sky Sports.

“Maybe that’s fatigue, we have to do better. But we can’t be negative about tonight.

“I need games. The manger knows it, I know it. It’s time to recover and hopefully I’m ready for next week and it’s going to be a very tough one again against Burnley.”