Virgil van Dijk reveals Liverpool transfer expectations before summer deadline - 'I can't lie'

Van Dijk

Virgil van Dijk insists he has full faith in Liverpool's recruitment department to bring in another attacker before the transfer deadline passes as speculation over Alexander Isak's future at Newcastle continues.

Magpies striker Isak is currently training alone at Newcastle's base having chosen to stay off the pre-season tour of the Far East by citing a minor thigh injury and the Sweden international has played no part of the summer schedule for Eddie Howe.

Liverpool saw an offer of £110m rejected by Newcastle earlier this month and have now stated the talks are on ice

while Howe and his staff recruit a replacement for Isak, who Newcastle are adamant won't be sold before a successor is sourced.

The sale of Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz, coupled with the tragic loss of Diogo Jota last month sees Liverpool heading into the new Premier League campaign with just new signing Hugo Ekitike as the only natural senior centre forward in the squad.

Sporting director Richard Hughes was able to raise around £110m for Diaz and Nunez and the club are working on adding to their attacking options before the September 1 deadline, with Isak the leading candidate at present.

After a lavish summer that has already seen the best part of £300m forked out, Reds skipper Van Dijk says the right people are in place to ensure the squad is not short of options by the time the window closes at the beginning of next month.

Van Dijk

"I don’t know [if the squad is short], we will find out,"

"What I think is that Hugo made an impression on and off the ball since he came in, great finish by the way.

Everything that happened with Diogo, tragic. Lucho and Darwin leaving.

"Those are three senior attackers. I fully trust the club to do the right thing, what they think is good for the club.

"If you look at the players that have come in, I think they played well today. Jeremie and Hugo with the goals, Milos was good, you need time with everything.

“If you play together you know the strengths and what the player likes in terms of positioning. That is obvious. I don’t think in this case there is such a thing as too much change.

"I think we are in good shape. I know where you want to go with this question, the defensive part of our team.

“We have conceded every game we played apart from Stoke when no fans were there. That is something we need to improve as a collective.

"Other than that it was good to feel the intensity again, to be back playing in the UK.

“Personally for me to get my first 90 minutes after being ill in bed for five days.

"So many good things today but I can’t lie, I am disappointed to come to Wembley and lose the last two times.

"Well, we just lost Darwin, He went to Saudi and we lost Lucho, obviously he went to Bayern.

“I think there's always room for an attacker in order to strengthen us so let's see what the window brings in terms of the balance of the team.”

"I said it last year we had to trust the club, the board and the people to make the right decisions, in order to help the club to even improve in all positions.

“Even with the season we had last season and I think that is a good sign. I think they have been doing pretty well."