Liverpool lead Premier League by 13 points at halfway stage
Monday 30 December 2019 15:35, UK
Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool have been 'spurred' on by their near-miss in the Premier League last season and are hungry for more success.
Jurgen Klopp and his side lifted the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup this year but were pipped to the Premier League title by domestic treble winners Manchester City in 2018/19.
The Reds finished the calendar year with a 1-0 win over Wolves which re-established their commanding 13-point lead at the top of the league.
Centre-back Van Dijk, who has played in every top-flight game for Liverpool this season, said: "We are halfway through now and we hope to finish the season on a high so for that, we have to focus on the game ahead of us.
"The whole experience from last year, doing well in the league, only losing one time, winning the Champions League, the whole experience has been helping us so far in our journey this season.
"We came very close, unfortunately City were just a little bit better but that spurred us on to try even harder this year and so we have been winning games, grinding games out and playing good football at times.
"We enjoy the hard work too so that is very good. Hopefully we can just keep going doing that and just be hungry for that as well.
"We should be learning from what happened last year and I feel that is definitely what has been going on."
The Premier League leaders were knocked out of the Carabao Cup earlier in December but host Everton in the FA Cup third round on January 5 and play Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 in February.
Sheffield United are Liverpool's next opponents at Anfield on Thursday in the Premier League, before Klopp's side travel to face Tottenham on January 11, live on Sky Sports Premier League.
