Walking through the corridors of Wembley after the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, Virgil van Dijk was seen with a second trophy as he held the Man of the Match award under his arm. Two years ago, the defender was also chosen as the game's standout player. Back then, Chelsea had been the opponents in an extremely tight match which was won by Liverpool on penalties. This time around, spot-kicks seemed set to determine the outcome once again in another match-up of Reds versus Blues – but then the Dutchman headed home from a Kostas Tsimikas corner just before the end of extra time.
With Liverpool missing many players for Sunday's game, several academy graduates played their part in the victory. It was a remarkable achievement. "I’m very happy of course and very proud of the team, on all the young players who have been very important in the last few weeks and they must continue to do so for the club," Van Dijk told FourFourTwo after the match. "And our goalkeeper who was also outstanding. It was a beautiful evening in the end.
"It’s just the situation we are in at the moment, with an extremely high number of injuries. Then other guys – in this case the young guys – have to stand up and they did."
And Van Dijk illustrated nicely how the average age of the Liverpool team had gone down dramatically in recent weeks. "When you are sitting in the dressing room and you have a 16-year-old on the bench, it's remarkable, as he is half my age, haha!" he said. "But it’s an opportunity for those guys and they did a good job."
Liverpool looked to have gone 1-0 up after the hour mark when Van Dijk headed in an Andy Robertson cross, but that one was disallowed with Wataru Endo in an offside position and deemed to be blocking Levi Colwill who could have otherwise have possibly intervened. "Unfortunately [it didn’t count], but then you have to move on and in the end we still managed to do it, which was great," the defender said.
The Reds held on, with Chelsea missing several chances, but the Londoners seemed to have the edge as they had more depth on the bench. That was evident when Liverpool sent on James McConnell, Jayden Danns and Tsimikas in the 87th minute, with Chelsea subbing on Mykhailo Mudryk several minutes later.
But the young players gave Liverpool an extra spark, albeit with a bit of adjusting when the match went into extra time, Van Dijk revealed. "I think especially the first half of the extra time, it was a bit chaotic on our side, of course also due to the subs we had to make, with young guys who are of course very enthusiastic, but also perhaps have to pace themselves and choose the moments to hold the ball. And Chelsea are of course a good team, we shouldn't forget that. Ultimately it's about staying in the game and waiting for your moments and luckily we got that goal."
The Dutchman explained the tactics behind his headers, which he has scored on quite a few occasions recently for Liverpool. "Usually I am marked quite tightly, often double marked – I am one of the main targets there and then you have to try to get some space," he said. "It's about the delivery and you trying to come free – it's a combination – and the last few games it has been perfect."
Van Dijk describes how the winning goal yesterday was part of that routine. “I knew the ball would come at the first post, in front of Mudryk," he said. "And then you have to head it well, and that's what happened."
The Liverpool captain believes Chelsea studied videos of Liverpool’s previous match in which the Dutchman also scored a header. "I think they have analysed the Luton match and of course they try to solve it differently, by passing over [who they mark] at the last moment and that is always difficult, but you still have to get the ball where you want it, the timing of your run has to be good; everything has to be right. Luckily that happened twice and luckily the second goal did count."
With one trophy in the bag, Liverpool can look forward to the rest of the season, and Van Dijk hopes that some of the injured players can return quickly. "Hopefully no more injuries after today," he said. "The injury of Ryan [Gravenberch] doesn't look good, when you see him walking with that [protective] boot. I guess there will be a scan tomorrow [Monday], hopefully it's not too bad.
"We need everyone, and today we also needed all the young guys and they played their part."
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