Virgil van Dijk warns Liverpool against complacency as Manchester United bid to halt awful start | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has warned Liverpool that it could be “the perfect game” for Manchester United to transform their fortunes when Jurgen Klopp’s side visit Old Trafford on Monday.

United are bottom of the Premier League after losing both matches under Erik ten Hag, including a 4-0 thrashing at Brentford on Saturday, and Van Dijk feels their confidence will have been hit.

But he is wary of the talent in the United ranks as he guarded against complacency.

“They are a good team, in my opinion,” Van Dijk said. “They have good players all over the pitch. Obviously they’re not in the best situation confidence-wise probably, but it’s the perfect game to turn it around.”

Liverpool recorded the biggest victory at Old Trafford in their history last season, 5-0, and also triumphed 4-2 there in May 2021, but had not won in their previous seven visits and Van Dijk added: “Over the years it has proven tough for us to win there, obviously last year was a great result, we can’t deny it. This year they’ve had a difficult start and we’ve not had the best start that we wanted either, so it will be interesting.”

Liverpool have made a slow start to the season, with consecutive draws while they have been hit by injuries, but Van Dijk denied they were thinking about looking for a statement win.

He explained. “It’s massive but it’s not about making a statement, we want to win and do everything that’s possible to win there. Hopefully we get some players back and get a good performance and just be positive and think about winning.”

The Reds drew with Fulham on the opening weekend and followed that up with a home draw with Crystal Palace on Monday night, in a game which saw Darwin Nunez sent-off - meaning he’ll be suspended for the short trip to United.