Van Dijk: Liverpool not scared of Man Utd

The defender says his team need to be aware of the “good players” they face but says the Reds need to play their game

Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool are aware of what they face against Manchester United on Sunday and don’t have anything to be afraid of with the Red Devils attack.

Liverpool head into the weekend on top of the Premier League table by a point over United’s local rivals Manchester City and are looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the league.

Meanwhile, the Red Devils come into the weekend sixth in the table on 24 points – eight off fourth place Chelsea and 16 back of Liverpool at the top.

However, under Jose Mourinho the last two seasons, United have limited Liverpool to just three draws and a loss in four Premier League matches.

And while the Red Devils have struggled this campaign, they boast an impressive group of attackers in the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba.

But Van Dijk is not concerned of that, noting that while Liverpool must remain focused on the quality of the opposition, they have the ability to counter them.

"You know what you're going to face,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports. “We have pretty good pace as well, so we don't have to be scared of anything, but we need to be aware of their danger.

"They have good players, especially up front, so we need to be ready for that, but other than that we need to play our game, make sure we are on top of that and to put them under pressure."

Liverpool needed a victory against Napoli on their final day of the Champions League group stage to secure advancement to the knockout stages.

Mohamed Salah scored a first-half goal, while Alisson made a crucial stoppage time save to keep another clean sheet for the club.

In fact, Liverpool have been the stingiest team in Premier League play this season, allowing only six goals – a far cry from a side that was considered one of the leakiest of the top six as recently as early last season.

Van Dijk’s arrival last January after the Reds paid a record fee to Southampton helped turn that around, and the centre-back takes pride in how well he and his team-mates have come together to perform defensively in this first part of the season.

"It makes all of us proud,” Van Dijk said. “We do it together, defend together and attack together. But obviously for me personally as a defender, to see we only conceded six is very good.

"But you can't win anything with it, so we still have a long way to go, but we're obviously very proud with this start. It has not gone too bad! I have been enjoying every bit of it, it has been going so quick, it's almost a year since I've joined, and it has been going fast.

"You don't want to lose any game, but we don't want to concede at all. That's definitely something we say to each other, and has been going alright."