Virgil van Dijk always sets high standards for himself and that has been clear since his early few days at Liverpool.
He’s now grown used to success at club level but success at international level has been difficult for the centre-back, who saw his Netherlands side knocked out of Euro 2024 at the hands of England.
The Liverpool man has now spoken to De Telegraaf about the exit and has made his emotions clear about how the elimination took place.
Van Dijk personally received quite a lot of criticism in the Netherlands for his performances and that’s something he’s acknowledged.
He said: “In terms of football, things could have been better personally. That is the conclusion I have come to. Unfortunately, I have not been able to bring what I wanted to bring.
“Not that things went badly, not at all, but expectations are very high. And I have not been able to meet them.”
He also stated that after the elimination, he had doubts about his future with the national side.
“It was a lot after a very long and intense season. I am also a human being, I also have emotions. You start thinking all sorts of things. Especially right after a match with the elimination in the last minute.
“And I also understood that it was a bit unclear how I felt about it, because after the match I was very disappointed and I was full of emotion.”
Van Dijk has long struggled to be as consistently impressive for the Netherlands as he has been for Liverpool. That’s seen him sometimes have an uneasy relationship with the Dutch media, and face criticism that he’s just not used to getting in England.
There’s a possibility the expectations have long been too high regarding with he can do for Oranje, but it appears even Van Dijk himself was unhappy with his level at the Euros.
