Van Dijk sure that Liverpool can cope with injury worries
Virgil van Dijk has warned Chelsea it would not be wise to underestimate a Liverpool team without Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez.
Jurgen Klopp’s side proved in midweek, when they came from behind to beat Luton 4-1 with an impressive second-half performance, they are capable of scoring goals without two of their major stars.
Both face late fitness tests ahead of tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final after Salah suffered fatigue in his first match back at Brentford last weekend after a month out with a hamstring injury and Nunez was replaced at half-time in the same game as a precaution.
With Diogo Jota, their second-highest scorer this season, already ruled out it leaves Liverpool looking less threatening up front even though Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz both have reached double figures. But Van Dijk said that did not mean Chelsea should view it as an easier task as they seek to avenge their League Cup final defeat on penalties of two years ago.
“If they take us lightly then that’s their problem. That fear factor, we don’t have influence on that,” said the Dutchman.
“I think the players coming in then have to step up and show they’re wrong. I think that’s the only way to do it. Everyone has to step up and the ones that play have to deliver to get results.”
In terms of Liverpool’s opponents, Mauricio Pochettino believes Chelsea are “awake” after recent results that have altered the course of their season ahead of the final.
The meeting with Liverpool at Wembley will be the club’s first final since co-owner Todd Boehly took charge and embarked on a radical overhaul that has so far not brought success.
It comes after wins away at Aston Villa in the FA Cup and Crystal Palace in the Premier
League, which were followed by a fine draw against champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium a week ago.
Those three performances have significantly changed the perception of Pochettino’s rebuilding of the team, after the last home game – a 4-2 defeat by Wolves at Stamford Bridge early in February – saw Chelsea booed off the pitch by sections of their own support.
Days earlier they were soundly beaten 4-1 at Anfield by tomorrow’s opponents, a disjointed performance in which the team looked to be in disarray and well short of expectations set by the more than £1 billion spent by Boehly on recruitment.
Now the the Argentine is confident that the last three weeks have brought a significant change in his players’ ability to compete at Wembley with title-chasing Liverpool.
“We will need to manage some moments during the game,” he said. “But I think in the last few weeks we’ve learned a lot, we’ve stepped up from [the defeat at Anfield]. We arrive with very good momentum.
“After competing against Villa, Palace and Manchester City, it’s provided the team with the confidence and the trust.
“The team is awake to the competition. There was a click to change in the way we compete, that we were missing in the first half of the season.”