Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has been asked whether his ban for Monday night’s showdown against Germany will mean that he returns to Anfield sooner than expected.
Virgil van Dijk has ruled out the possibility of returning to Liverpool earlier than planned following his red card for the Netherlands against Hungary on Friday night. The influential Dutch skipper is now suspended for Monday’s trip to Germany, but he will still travel with his international teammates to Munich.
Van Dijk was shown the first red card of his international career, and his seventh overall, for picking up two yellow cards in the space of three minutes. The second caution in the 1-1 Nations League draw came as a result of fouling Hungary player Kevin Csoboth on 79 minutes, but the Liverpool centre-back was particularly aggrieved by that first, which was given for dissent after he approached the referee following a foul on teammate Donyell Malen.
“[The red card] is a bummer and should not have happened. But I’m especially angry about the first,” Van Dijk told ESPN Netherlands after the game.
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“They say the captain is the only one who can talk to the referee. I walk up to him…
“Up tempo, but not in a nasty way, not at all. Very respectful, because I felt it was a breakaway player, he did not go for the ball at all. If even the captain cannot say anything, then it can get difficult.”
Van Dijk will not be travelling back to Liverpool ahead of schedule, however, despite his suspension for Monday’s visit to the Allianz Arena in Munich. “A day off vs Germany?
“I’m staying with the national team. I want to be there for the group, this will not change.”
Outspoken pundit and former Netherlands star Rafael van der Vaart admits Liverpool head coach Arne Slot might have preferred him to return early and could ask him to make his way back ahead of the Anfield clash with Chelsea a week on Sunday. “I would have gone home if I was Van Dijk,” Van der Vaart told Dutch TV.
“You have so many games! Now you need to travel again, to Germany. I think Arne Slot would want this too – and that he could demand this.”
