Virgil van Dijk has revealed that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp “went after him” during their draw against Fulham earlier this season.
Van Dijk is among the Liverpool players who have struggled at times this season.
The Dutch centre-back has proven himself to be one of the best defenders in the world in recent years but his form has dipped.
The 31-year-old was back near to his best earlier this month as Liverpool battled hard to beat Man City 1-0 at Anfield.
Liverpool followed this up with a win over West Ham United but they were beaten 1-0 by Nottm Forest over the weekend.
This result leaves Liverpool eighth in the Premier League and they are 12 points adrift of league leaders Arsenal.
The Reds have four wins, four draws and three losses in the early weeks of the 2022/23 campaign.
One of their draws came at the start of August as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Marco Silva’s Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Liverpool fell behind twice in that game before Mo Salah equalised with ten minutes to go. They were unable to find a winner though and Van Dijk has revealed that Klopp was “going after him” late on in that game.
He answered when asked if the German manager has ever gotten angry at him.
“Plenty of times! He doesn’t scream in your face because I feel that screaming in someone’s face would be a bit disrespectful but when it’s needed he’ll definitely do it,” Van Dijk told Neville on The Overlap.
“He shouts a lot but I like that because when someone does that it’s because someone really cares about you or the situation to make sure it improves.
“When we played Fulham in the first game of the season and in the last five minutes I was trying to go more direct and he was shouting at me that we needed to play a bit more.
“I know he was shouting from the sides so I wasn’t looking at him or trying to acknowledge him because I knew that he was going to go after me.”
Neville also asked Van Dijk which player he was influenced by the most. Somewhat surprisingly, he went for FC Barcelona icon Ronaldinho.
“It’s just the way that he was, especially after the second season that he joined Barcelona. He was the difference-maker, you know?
“He was the one that everybody was looking to see and his goals, tricks and flair.
“Obviously you played against him a couple of times and at that point he was the best player in the world and he inspired me in different way because I’m not a striker, but he influenced who I am today.”
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