October 9th 2023.
Virgil van Dijk made history in the summer by succeeding Jordan Henderson as Liverpool's captain. On Sunday, he was in the spotlight again as he defended one of his teammates after the Reds were held to a 2-2 draw at Brighton.
Simon Adingra opened the scoring after an error from Alexis Mac Allister, but Mohamed Salah fired home twice to turn the game on its head. However, Lewis Dunk equalised in the 78th minute, resulting in a point each for both sides.
Van Dijk chose to defend Mac Allister after the clash, admitting it was not only his teammate's fault for the first goal. He said, “It is a risky ball and we try to play out from the back. These things happen and you get punished. The way we bounced back was a great reaction.”
When asked about Pascal Gross hacking down Dominik Szoboszlai in the box and if the Brighton man should have been shown a red card, Van Dijk said, “On the pitch you are thinking about this and you have to be careful for asking if [he] was going to get sent off. I was curious for the reason why he didn’t get a booking. I didn’t see any replays on the pitch. We win the penalty, we score the penalty and the ref didn’t give a yellow or a red. We have to accept it.”
Although Liverpool were unable to take all three points, Van Dijk's leadership and support for his teammates was certainly noticed. He was willing to take responsibility for his side's mistakes and also defended his teammates in the face of adversity. Such qualities are what have made him the captain of one of the biggest teams on the planet.
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