Virgil van Dijk held up Jarell Quansah as a “fantastic talent” after Liverpool defeated Burnley to go top of the Premier League table.
Darwin Nunez opened the scoring for the Reds just five minutes after kickoff with his first goal in 13 matches.
The visitors struggled to put away Vincent Kompany’s side and had two goals disallowed, but Diogo Jota struck late on to ensure they left Turf Moor with all three points.
“It’s obviously very important,” the Dutchman told Amazon Prime. “It’s been a very intense nine or 10 days with different challenges. We did very well. It was a bit chaos after the [second] goal that was disallowed but I think we played well.
“I don’t think there was a lot of luck. It’s never easy. They play at home and we have to be very good and ready to suffer as well. We were good and with the changes we made, I’m happy with the result.”
Taking the place of the injured Joel Matip, the 20-year-old Quansah played an entire Premier League game for the first time in his career, playing in the centre of Liverpool’s defence alongside Van Dijk.
“Jarell Quansah is a fantastic talent and up and coming,” he said. “From the moment he made his debut he’s been improving. It’s nice to see. I really like that and if I can help him, I will. I’m very pleased for him.”
Although the result sent Liverpool to the summit of the Premier League, Van Dijk refused to be drawn on the team’s chances of winning the title.
“It’s December so we won’t think too far ahead but I’m very pleased because it’s the last game for us in the year so now it’s time to have a little bit of time with the family. We are definitely hoping to be up there competing for the title so let’s see where we will be.”
