EXCLUSIVE: Virgil van Dijk opens up on Liverpool captaincy, culture and why new-look team must deliver

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The quality is there but the guarantees are not, so you have to work for it each and every day first and foremost to do it in the games."You know since I have been at the club, from the day I walked in, obviously with Jurgen (Klopp) as the manager and Hendo (Jordan Henderson) as the captain, the values that they showed me back then I wanted to keep carrying on."That is how it should be for the next few years and whatever happens after I finally have to go. That's just a good thing."Across the course of my career, I have come across many fans that I have surprised and they didn't expect me to be there and the reaction is always so genuine.

Because I am interested in their story."We live a hectic life and I am not complaining whatsoever, but I am in the spotlight and people see me and maybe have an idea about me. But when I have these one-on-one meetings, I just try to make them feel at ease and we can just have a normal conversation.

I know that I am a big player and I have meant a lot, but I am someone who is also just a normal father with kids and I go through the same problems as so many others and that means we can relate on so many things."Obviously I want to leave a good legacy behind on and off the pitch and I am trying to do that by being myself and I am not doing anything different. We didn't manage to do it after winning it last time (in 2020), Manchester City managed to do it but it is such a difficult thing."I think the club have done brilliantly in terms of the additions that we have made but they are not really additions because obviously we have lost so much quality that was so important over the last few years.