Virgil van Dijk says his relationships with Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo must be given time to develop as the Liverpool captain assessed a new-look defensive department at Anfield.
Both players impressed at the back as Liverpool signed off from pre-season with a 2-0 win over Serie A side Como on Sunday. Jacquet was making his first appearance of the summer schedule since his £60m move from Rennes was confirmed on July 1 and he caught the eye with a commanding display that also saw him score the second goal after Cody Gakpo's opener.
The France Under-21 international was replaced at the break by Araujo, who joined on loan from Barcelona last week, and the Uruguay international was combative alongside Reds skipper Van Dijk as Andoni Iraola's men kept just their second clean sheet in five friendlies, excluding the behind-closed-doors draw with Como earlier in the day.
Van Dijk's assessment of new signings
The captain has now challenged both Jacquet and Araujo to continue their good form when the competitive action begins, starting with a trip to Newcastle United on Sunday in the Premier League.
"I think Jeremy did well, same as Ronald," Van Dijk said. "It's a start, a good start so hopefully he can crack on. Like I said, I think he did well. I think he came out of it a bit tired, but it's absolutely normal when you're playing your first 45 minutes after such a long time."
"Now it's down to him to recover. We'll be back on the pitch tomorrow morning and then we're working towards Newcastle. St James' Park will be always a tough one."
Building connections on the pitch
Van Dijk explained how he will build his partnership with the new centre-backs, saying: "[We'll build a relationship] by playing games. I won't say it's the only way, but games are totally different than training. Jeremy's English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald's but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers. We can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations."
"But it's pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. In my opinion that's absolutely normal but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible."
Reflecting on the game, Van Dijk added: "I think it was a good game. A good test against an opponent that is, in my opinion, pretty good on the ball, have good passes of playing, so you will be at times being played through. But I think it was a good day in terms of a lot of players, 90 minutes. Obviously, winning is always good and now we have a week to prepare for the real work."
Intensity and improvement
Van Dijk also discussed the team's pressing and intensity, saying: "What I see is that no team in world football can play full intensity for 90 minutes. Obviously at a certain point, you're going to have some moments where players - or we all - get to a position where we're going to be a bit tired."
"Then it's down to us to make sure that we are compact and find the right moment to press again. I think we did that much better than we did the last game (3-2 loss to Monaco). Obviously everyone's eager to go and to press and keep their intensity up but it's a team game and we need everyone together in order to be able to do that."
"That goes in phases through the game. But if you do that at the right time, at the right moment, then you don't need to run as much as we sometimes do. So that means at times when there is a throw-in, a free-kick, you have to maybe play it even quicker in order to keep the ball a little bit longer."
"But it's a process and we're working on that. Today there was definitely improvement in my opinion. Obviously when you play the previous two games, you are 2-0 up and you give it away, I think that's something you can't have happening again. I'm glad we did much better in that sense."
