Liverpool captain Van Dijk full of praise for Gakpo and Gravenberch

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has praised countrymen Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch this week.

The two Dutchmen were instrumental in the Reds winning 3-1 against Fulham in the Premier League.

Gravenberch got his first top flight goal, while Gakpo was the man of the match at Craven Cottage.

Post-game, Van Dijk said: "Cody has been outstanding in my opinion since he arrived at the club. The difficulty he has had was he has played in so many positions.

"He's learning. He's so important for the club and will be going forward. On Sunday he was outstanding and so was Ryan. To come in, not only just score a goal, but in possession being so good.

"We see day in day out how good he is. When there is a chance for him to play, as there will be, he showed (what he can do)."

All three title contenders have recent experience of battling for the Premier League crown and, with only five games remaining, Van Dijk has explained the very simple message that has been driven home in the Liverpool dressing room.

"We've been speaking about that from the first days," said the Liverpool skipper when asked to consider lessons learned from recent years. "Focus on one at a time. We have to win the games in front of us, that's all we can do. We need experience as well in order to do that. We'll go for it, give everything we have. We have to do that to be champion.

"We should not look at anybody else, just focus on ourselves. It's been a tough couple of weeks, two weeks maybe, funnily enough things can change very quickly. For us there's only one task. Five games left, we have to win every one of them."