Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool will use the "hurt" of last month's FA Cup defeat at Manchester United to fuel their Premier League title quest
the Liverpool captain believes the Reds' luck on the injury front is finally starting to turn as Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker all close in on their respective comebacks
Liverpool head into the weekend's fixtures as Premier League leaders after Thursday night's 3-1 win over Sheffield United
Van Dijk says the pain of that last-gasp defeat still lingers as the Reds skipper called upon his colleagues to channel that in the right way on Sunday.
Van Dijk
"Of course it is still fresh, it was very disappointing, losing is never good,"
"Especially the way we lost that day, it's something that hurt in the 24 hours after the game.
"You want to go to Wembley, you want to go and play that semi-final, but we had to quickly switch to the national team.
"But the focus now will be on recovery and what we have to do better against them because it will be a big challenge again.
"What do we need to do better? Win the game! They started the game well and got the crowd behind them and it gave them a push.
"Conceding the goal was disappointing but after that we controlled the game and scored two good goals and could have done better.
"But we kept them alive and they made use of it in the best way possible. That's credit to them but we are going there on Sunday to turn it around and make sure we get the three points.
"We want to win every game, that's the focus at Liverpool.
"We know how much it means and how big it is for the outside world but for us we are in a phase that we can't lose points so we are going there in order to get the three points.
"We know it's going to be tough but it will be tough for them as well.
"They had a tough game tonight so they also have to recover and be ready for a tough challenge. I'm looking forward to it and let's see, hopefully we get the job done.
"The games that we play against each other are always a bit on their own, it doesn't really matter what happened a couple of days before or a week before results-wise.
"It's on its own, it means a lot to both teams and fans.
"We have only one goal going there, to try and win the game, and we're going to give everything and we need everyone at their best.
"I think [composure] is key. In nervous moments, the crowd could get nervous, you want to rush things, that can be part of the game.
"The difference-maker will be being calm and making the right choices but still be full of aggression and going for it.
"I think not only tonight, we've been showing it already for a very long time that we have that quality and we have to keep doing it."
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