Liverpool: Virgil van Dijk denies team meeting claim as Dominik Szoboszlai reveals free-kick secrets | OneFootball

Reds captain sets record straight on reports that circulated following frustrating Burnley draw at Anfield

Virgil van Dijk insists he did not call a team meeting ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League win over Marseille.

Liverpool bounced back brilliantly from a lacklustre performance at the weekend, making it 13 games unbeaten across all competitions as they snapped a run of disappointing draws with a comfortable 3-0 victory in Marseille that moved them up to fourth in the Champions League table with only one league phase fixture left to play.

However, Van Dijk says he did not demand a team meeting ahead of a successful night’s work at the hostile Stade Velodrome, which was silenced by Dominik Szoboszlai’s clever free-kick on the stroke of half-time and late third goal from substitute Cody Gakpo, with Jeremie Frimpong also forcing an own goal by Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.

“No, I don’t know the ones that put in the media,” Van Dijk told TNT Sports in France when asked about the reports that he had called a team meeting after the game against Burnley.

“I don’t know. I think it was obviously asked if there would be a meeting after the last game and obviously there was going to be a meeting.

“But obviously I didn’t say there was a meeting by me. So I don’t know where this misinformation is coming from, but that’s how it sometimes goes. We just keep going. It was not down to me.”

Meanwhile, Van Dijk’s Liverpool team-mate Szoboszlai said he had got reward for doing his “homework” after opening the scoring against Marseille by rolling a smart free-kick under a leaping wall just before the break, with Hugo Ekitike having seen an earlier effort ruled out for offside.

“Yeah, I did my homework,” the Hungarian international said. “I got told that if no one is laying down [behind the wall], then maybe I can have a chance to hit it under the wall.

“No one was laying down so I tried it and it worked out.”

Szoboszlai was pictured in discussion with returning friend Mohamed Salah before taking the free-kick in question following Leonardo Balerdi’s foul on Ryan Gravenberch in first-half stoppage time, with the opportunity looking to perhaps better suit Salah’s left foot.

However, Szoboszlai stood firm to dispatch his effort into the back of the net and when asked if he was now Liverpool’s designated free-kick taker, he said: “Well, we will always discuss about it, who feels good in the game, maybe there are better positions for someone.

“He [Salah] just asked me if I wanted to take it and I said yes because I checked that if no one is laying down as I said, I am going to take it under the wall. He said, ‘okay, then take it’. And yeah, I scored.”