In the third round of the Premier League, Liverpool defeated Ipswich 2-0 away. After the match, Liverpool captain Van Dijk gave an interview to Viaplay.

First, captain, congratulations on your first Premier League win of the season. Is it more of a relief or a joy now?

It was a good match. We had many good performances, many of which we've worked on repeatedly in training over the last few days, and the result was quite good. The start was very good, much better than the two matches before, and we didn't concede. We haven't done that in a long time. So it was a good night, that's all. We keep moving forward.

As a player, do you feel affected if there's negativity around the club? As captain, does the transfer window and everything happening around the club also affect you personally?

As captain, you don't just think about yourself. The first thing you think about is everything around you—the club, the players, how they feel, and how we should handle certain things. I think we're in a good place now. The transfer window is now closed, we're united, and we're fighting for a very special, very successful season. That's the only thing we need to do, and that's what we need to focus on. That's it. I don't think we need to pay attention to outside voices. For me, what matters most is what happens within the team, not just myself or my feelings, but all of us.

I ask because I think as captain, you probably need to be a shield for the players. Players often say, "No, we don't care, we won't look at this," but in reality, of course, you do see it, and of course, you do care. So for a big club like Liverpool, your role must be very important.

One hundred percent. But we're all adults now. Of course, I will share my experience and offer advice. I've been in this industry long enough, and I know how it works. So today was a good match for all of us. We put in a lot of effort, and there were some outstanding individual performances. Alex (Isak) was clearly excellent, scoring two great goals; Cody also played very well. I think from a defensive perspective, we performed much better than before. As I said, there were many positive things today that we can build on. But this is only the third match of the season. Now we need to recover from this match and then focus on the start of our Champions League journey. I'm really looking forward to it.

How much do you enjoy constantly changing defensive partnerships during matches? I mean, your partner on the pitch.

I think this isn't about enjoyment, but about competition. If you're a Liverpool player, I think you have the ability to compete and succeed. Whoever my partner is, or whoever plays, we have to perform. You can develop chemistry and partnership by playing consistently. Today I have to say, Jaquet played very well; similarly, R. Araujo and Kerkez. Now we move on to the next match.

It must also be very important for the new manager to get his first Premier League win at Liverpool.

One hundred percent. Clearly, we all want to win matches. Unfortunately, despite some good moments in the first two matches, we drew both and conceded 4 goals, which is a very bitter reality. We want to improve, and the only way to do that is to work hard on the training pitch, fix problems in training, and analyze where else we can do better. That's what we're doing. Then we need to show the results of our training in matches, over more than 90 minutes. I think today you could see many positive changes compared to the first two matches, and that's the foundation we need to keep building and consolidating.

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