\n<\/p>\n
Virgil van Dijk has reinforced Arne Slot\u2019s desire for more silverware for the new season by insisting that retaining the Premier League title is \u201cthe bare minimum\u201d for Liverpool.<\/p>\n
The champions will get a final tune-up for their defence when Sunday\u2019s Community Shield pits them against Crystal Palace and the club\u2019s captain was in a bullish mood in an interview on the club\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Slot has been busy strengthening a squad that won the league by 10 points and Van Dijk says that after a spree of almost \u00a3300m on new players, there will be no lack of intensity when the season begins against Bournemouth on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going into the season with goals that you want to compete for every trophy that you participate in. I think that\u2019s the bare minimum for a club like Liverpool,\u201d said Van Dijk. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very tough but we\u2019ve been through very tough times anyway and I\u2019m really looking forward to it. I\u2019m looking forward to every bit of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all in this together and that\u2019s how it should be. Us as a group with players, staff but together with our fans, we have to go together into this and support each other and be there for each other in the good and lesser-good days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Dijk spoke of his desire to leave a lasting impression at Anfield. \u201cAny success with Liverpool, that feeling is incredible. That\u2019s what you play football for. You want to be leaving a legacy behind, you want to be remembered, you want to inspire the next generation in everything you do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a club where legends will be remembered and honoured and always be welcomed back. It\u2019s an amazing feeling and an amazing feeling that we were part of that period of time, but we still are part of the club and want to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Dijk is \u2013 alongside teammates Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister and Florian Wirtz \u2013 included on the 2025 Ballon d\u2019Or shortlist. Salah, last season\u2019s Premier League Player of the Season and FWA Footballer of the Year, said: \u201cBeing a legend at a club, especially like Liverpool, is such a great thing. It shows you that you worked very hard and achieved things that are difficult for people to achieve. I\u2019m grateful for something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nice if you can start the season with the chance of winning something,\u201d Slot said. \u201cNormally you have to play numerous games before you can win something.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s the League Cup, FA Cup, let alone [the] Premier League or Champions League, normally you win something in the end of the season. Now we have a chance to win something in the beginning of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Virgil van Dijk has reinforced Arne Slot\u2019s desire for more silverware for the new season by insisting that retaining the Premier League title is \u201cthe bare minimum\u201d for Liverpool. The champions will get a final tune-up for their defence when Sunday\u2019s Community Shield pits them against Crystal Palace and the club\u2019s captain was in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[8464,8462,8461,8463,2069,8465,7103,8460],"class_list":{"0":"post-14876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bare","9":"tag-competing","10":"tag-dijk","11":"tag-fronts","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-minimum","14":"tag-van","15":"tag-virgil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}