The Liverpool captain made his 200th Premier League appearance as the Reds beat their fierce rivals Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford

Virgil van Dijk has revealed how he refocused the minds of his colleagues at half-time of Liverpool’s 3-0 humbling of Manchester United by reminding them of last season’s Old Trafford collapses. Mohamed Salah scored a third to add to Luis Diaz’s double after the break as Arne Slot secured a stunning victory in just his third outing as new head coach at Anfield.

Liverpool’s two visits to United last term, in March and April of this year, saw them knocked out of the FA Cup with a 4-3 defeat, having twice led, before a 2-2 draw in a match they dominated proved damaging for their Premier League title bid.

Van Dijk says he referenced both of those results in his half-time chat as skipper on the day the Liverpool captain marked his 200th Premier League appearance with a famous victory.

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“Definitely (feels extra special),” Van Dijk told Sky Sports. “It’s a proud moment but what pleased me the most, of course, was the performance from start to finish.

“I said it before in the huddle (before kick-off) that we want to enjoy ourselves out there, and the only way to do that is with the hard work we put in when we have the ball, get each others’ quality on show and I think we did that.

“Obviously we gave away two big chances and that is something to improve but overall I think we dominated. We should have scored more in my opinion but overall, winning 3-0 I think is a big improvement compared to last year.

“With me personally (last season’s results) was a little bit (in my mind). I am not the type of guy who holds any grudges or anything like that but I said at half-time, it was 2-0 up and I “think it was the same last year and we gave it away. That was something that was not going to happen today, we had to stay focused and I think we did very well and I am proud of the boys.”

Liverpool are second in the Premier League behind Manchester City on goals scored and host Nottingham Forest on the other side of the international break on September 14.