With a Carabao Cup winners' medal draped around his neck and the celebrations of Liverpool's latest success still going on around him, Virgil van Dijk reserved a pointed message to his critics.
Van Dijk, with a glint in his eye, stared down the camera and mocked: "They thought I was finished!"
It was seen, by some, as a cool riposte to those who had written off the Netherlands captain the previous season
Van Dijk has expressed his regret at the post-match video, insisting he shouldn't have taken on his detractors in such a way
In a searingly honest chat after Liverpool's 6-1 hammering of Sparta Prague
Van Dijk said:
"I shouldn’t have said that. Because I don’t want to have the wrong intentions.
"That was part of the emotion coming out of me because there were so many emotions going through my whole body that day.
"Last season was disappointing. Not disappointing in a way that I was bad, I didn’t feel like that at all, I was just below my standards and the consistency wasn’t there that I have had and set for myself in each and every game.
"I fully understand the noise that came with it but I am a human being and not immune to any of that, so there was a bit of emotion that day but I shouldn’t have said that [to the camera]
"Maybe in one way it was good to say because it gets it out of me, but I don’t like noise around me. I like to play the game.
"Positive noise is fine but I just want to be my best version on the pitch and be the best I can because things have been going very well this season personally and big credit to all the team given the obstacles we had overcome.
"I know I play a big part in that, I know I had to step up and I did and I think after the little [tactical] change we did last March, I am feeling a lot better.
"The break helped massively in the summer and that brought me into good shape."
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