VIRGIL VAN DIJK says he wanted to play alongside left-back Andy Robertson years before the pair ended up at Liverpool.
Van Dijk and Robertson both made their name in Scottish football at Celtic and Dundee United respectively.
And Robertson first came to Van Dijk’s attention with an impressive performance for United against Celtic in 2013.
Robertson was the first to move to English football with Hull City in 2014 while Van Dijk joined Southampton in 2015 but the pair eventually came together when the left-back joined Liverpool in 2017 and the Dutch centre-back sealed a £75m transfer to Anfield in January.
The pair have since formed a strong relationship in the Liverpool backline and speaking on the official 2017-18 end-of-season DVD, Van Dijk revealed the depth of his admiration for Robertson.
“Robbo is doing fantastic. Obviously when I came to Celtic, in my first season he played at Dundee United and I already thought he’s a very good player and I thought at that time he should join Celtic!” Van Dijk said.
“I think I said it to one of the scouting guys as well - sometimes I like to give my opinion on players. He’s just a great player, [he] works hard.
“If you need ratings of a game, I don’t think he’d ever go lower than a six.
“You can trust him and the connection I have with him is getting better every game.
“He knows obviously what he has in me, and I get it the other way around as well.
"He’s a good guy as well and that obviously helps too.”
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