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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Tom Cavilla

Virgil van Dijk makes 'aggressive' Everton claim and gives verdict on Liverpool display

Virgil van Dijk believes Liverpool were deserving of all three points against Everton on Saturday afternoon despite being forced to settle for a share of the spoils at Goodison Park.

Jurgen Klopp's side came close to finding a winning goal on more than one occasion during the match but were left frustrated by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, whose inspired performance earned his team a point on the day.

Everton had chances of their own during the contest, hitting the post through Tom Davies and saw a second half strike from Conor Coady ruled out for offside following a VAR check. Nine of the last 11 meetings between the teams at the home of the Blues have now ended in stalemates, but Van Dijk is adamant Liverpool did enough to earn a third straight league win.

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"They [Everton] had a couple of opportunities and an offside goal. They had two good saves from Alisson, I think we had a little more [chances] than that. We should have won in my opinion. It feels like we lost two points," he told BT Sport after the full-time whistle.

"We wanted to stay calm. They wanted to be aggressive, feed the crowd. We had to keep our cool and play quickly from side to side, because the spaces were so massive between the lines. Sometimes we did that, sometimes we didn’t and created unnecessary problems.”

Liverpool have taken half of the 18 points on offer to them so far during the 2022/23 league campaign, with the Dutch defender admitting the Reds would have hoped for an improved start to the one they have endured. But, with plenty of matches still to play, the 31-year-old has remained optimistic Klopp's men can soon return to grinding out victories.

"It's about winning games, and we didn't win as much as we would like to," added the former Southampton star.

“We have 32 games left and everyone can have their opinion but we have players coming back from injury and hopefully everyone can stay fit and we try to get some wins. The expectation is high, we are one of the biggest clubs in the world so that will always be the case so we have to enjoy it too."

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