Anfield bids farewell to departing heroes as van Dijk looks forward
SAYING GOODBYE: Liverpool's Roberto Firmino applauds the fans at the end of the Premier League match and his final home game for the club at Anfield. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Liverpool said farewell to a couple of significant figures at Anfield, along with their hopes of Champions League football, leaving little for Jurgen Klopp, his players and adoring public to do other than look to next season.
By any reasonable measure during the Klopp regime, this has been a wasted year at Anfield; one that will almost certainly end with Europa, rather than Champions, League football for the club next season.
In the modern era of Premier League football, that marks a borderline catastrophe, at least in financial terms, although a strong end to the season, which has now seen them win seven and draw three of their last 10 games, suggests a trend in the right direction.
More relevantly, pre-season training is now only seven weeks away and thoughts are already turning there, with defender Virgil van Dijk revealing the whispers about a Klopp re-boot in terms of both physical and tactical preparations.
“I’m very excited for next season,” said van Dijk. “I think that feeling came a couple of months ago when we turned the page.
“Obviously there's still a lot to work on but the good thing in this case is that we have the whole pre-season to work on this and that's definitely the plan.
“The noises I'm hearing, it's going to be a very intense pre-season with a lot of physical work but also a lot of tactical work trying to get ready for a tough season.
“That's very exciting. Players are leaving, hopefully players come in and will be ready for the start of pre-season.”
The impressive late-season form coincided with Klopp effectively treating the final two months of the campaign as a “new” season in itself.
He not only oversaw a mini pre-season but also tinkered with tactics, getting back to basics in one sense, in terms of Liverpool’s high-energy pressing game, but also introducing wrinkles such as Trent Alexander-Arnold moving into a hybrid midfield role.
If the innovative German has similar notions in mind for when his team reconvenes and heads to a July camp in Germany and a tour of the Far East, Liverpool could be an interesting watch next season.
They will be so without Bobby Firmino, whose last-minute equaliser was a fitting farewell to Anfield, and James Milner who will both leave the club this summer. So, too, will Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, although their injury battles have left them little more than by-standers in recent times.
“I'll miss each and every one of them,” said van Dijk. “They've played their part, they have been successful, every one is contributing in their own way, not just Bobby.
“Bobby has been a very big part of the goals and the assists, together with Sadio (Mane) and Mo (Salah), and that creates the headlines. But all the other stuff that the other three have been doing as well shouldn't go unnoticed and that's why they're very respected within the group and also Liverpool fans.”
The signings brought in to replace them will form part of Klopp’s re-invention of the club, of course, and not even the failure to land Champions League football will dampen the desire of players to come to Anfield, at least according to van Dijk.
“Pre-season will be massive,” he said. “Everybody knows we've been going through a little bit of a transition.
“And, if I'm a player on the rise and I have options to go to the next step and Liverpool is knocking on my door, then I would be very, very interested. I don't think it's going to change much.”
Villa, who took the lead through Jacob Ramsey after a missed penalty from Ollie Watkins, are a club who will remember this season for all the right reasons, unlike their hosts.
Victory against Brighton on Sunday will take them into Europe for the first time in 13 years and complete a remarkable turnaround under Unai Emery.
“It’s been the aim since day one,” said midfielder John McGinn. “The owners have had a remit to get us back playing European football. If you’d said to us back in November you’d be three points away, then you’d have laughed. The other thing, players will want to sign and players will want to improve under him, players will see where the club is going.
“It’s such a brilliant place to be at the moment, it’s so positive. We could probably sell the ground twice over next week. It’s a passionate club, a kind of sleeping giant and hopefully next week we can start to waken up a wee bit.”
Alisson 6; Alexander-Arnold 5, Konate 5, van Dijk 6, Robertson 6 (Tsimikas 72, 5); Jones 6 (Jota 63, 5), Fabinho 6 (Elliott 81), Henderson 5 (Milner 72, 5); Salah 6, Gakpo 7, Diaz 5 (Firmino 72, 5).
Gomez, Carvalho, Matip, Kelleher.
Martinez 7; Cash 7, Konsa 7, Mings 7, Digne 6 (Young 53, 6); Kamara 6, Luiz 8 (Dendoncker 86); Bailey 6 (Moreno 53; Buendia 65, 6), McGinn 7, Ramsey 7; Watkins 6 (Duran 86).
Traore, Olsen, Sinisalo.
: J Brooks 7.
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