Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk makes Celtic admission

It is always good to see former Celtic players and managers going on to even more success after their time at Parkhead. Especially so when they take and use learning from their spell in Glasgow. That seems to be the case with Virgil van Dijk, who has been appointed captain at Liverpool after Jordan Henderson left the club over the summer.

Van Dijk had a brief yet great spell at Celtic before moving to Southampton back in 2015. It was clearly a big step in his development.

The experience of playing for a big club in important matches, as Van Dijk had with Celtic, will have helped him settle when he joined Liverpool in 2018. He is now the captain for both the Reds and the Netherlands national team.

Van Dijk seems to be looking back at his time at Parkhead for inspiration in his own journey as a captain. He has decided to introduce, or reintroduce, a Celtic tradition at Liverpool. He and his team now gather in a huddle on the pitch before kick-off. The pre-match routine was previously followed during the spells of Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez.

Liverpool captain Van Dijk makes Celtic admission

The huddle at Celtic first began back in 1995 and was introduced by then-captain Tony Mowbray. He introduced it to get greater team spirit and cohesiveness between the players. Van Dijk looks to have similar reasons. As reported by Football Scotland, he said:

"“It was something that we did when I was a Celtic player and I always liked it because I thought it set the tone for the game and it also gave the crowd a signal that we were ready to go.“It can also help the atmosphere with it being so close to the match starting, so if our fans want to join in by building up the noise and adding to the sense of anticipation I certainly won’t complain, even if it makes it difficult for me to make myself heard.”"

Perhaps Van Dijk needs to also encourage the Anfield crowd to do the huddle themselves like many great moments at Parkhead. Maybe though there is a limit on just how much they’ll copy from Celtic to enhance the match atmosphere at Liverpool.

Van Dijk is doing a pretty good job as captain this season. Liverpool seem to be back performing at a high level once again. And it would not be a surprise to see them lift some silverware by the end of the campaign.