Virgil van Dijk voted Standard Chartered Men's Player of the Month

The No.4's outstanding form has seen him claim the prize by edging out Luis Diaz in a vote by fans and Forever Reds, the club's official former players association.

Van Dijk started all seven of the Reds' fixtures in the month, helping the backline record five clean sheets and concede just two goals in that spell.

Having scored a header against Leeds United at Anfield, the centre-half then delivered a Player of the Match display in the Carabao Cup final, where he scored a penalty in the 11-10 shootout victory over Chelsea. 

After being presented with the award at the AXA Training Centre on Tuesday, Van Dijk sat down with Liverpoolfc.com to reflect on the month. Read on to see what he had to say...

Virgil, congratulations. You must be pleased to have your hands on this trophy again?

Yeah, it's been a while! I'm definitely proud and want to say thanks to everyone who has voted for me, all the fans. It's great to get recognition for a good month that we had as a team. Personally as well, I feel good and it's good to get a reward for it.

Seven games. Seven wins. Five clean sheets. And even a goal and a trophy. It wasn’t a bad February for you, was it?

No, it wasn't a bad month at all! It's something to build on, of course, and I am just happy that we are finding a good rhythm. Winning games is obviously the most important thing and enjoying ourselves out there, even with the tough moments we have in games too.

Speaking of enjoying, we even got a Joel Matip worldie in February, which you seemed to like...

Yeah, definitely! I have mentioned many times already before that one day he was going to score one of those dribbles that he does over the pitch with such good quality from him. It opens up the game, it opens up space for him to drive in, so I was definitely delighted to see him score. Obviously for him it was a great month as well.

We can't speak about you and February without asking about your penalty in the Carabao Cup final. Our fans loved it...

Obviously there was a lot at stake at that time and it was very important, so you had to be fully focused, you had to believe in yourself, pick a corner and go for it. I think everyone did so well – and [Chelsea] did very well as well, so it was very intense. In the end, I almost started on [taking] another penalty again, that's how good all the penalties that evening, but luckily for us we won.

Standard Chartered Men's Player of the Month 2021-22

February: Virgil van Dijk
January: Fabinho
December: Mohamed Salah
November: Trent Alexander-Arnold
October: Mohamed Salah
September: Mohamed Salah
August: Mohamed Salah