Virgil van Dijk believes Southampton are making good progress in pre-season, with the defender targeting another strong campaign for the team and himself.
The centre-half, who won both the Fans’ and Players’ Player of the Season awards last term, says this week’s tour to Holland, which has already featured wins over PEC Zwolle and FC Twente, has resulted in some encouraging improvement.
"Winning is important, even if it's in the pre-season,” van Dijk told youtube.com/southamptonfc, with Saints having won all three of their pre-season matches so far.
“It helps a lot, it grows confidence, it gives you a good feeling. Obviously, things need to go better, that's for sure, but I think in the end we are making progress and we are in a good way.”
The trip to van Dijk’s home country has been a positive one for him personally, with the 25-year-old scoring in the 2-1 win over FC Twente, while wearing the captain’s armband in both games.
Ahead of today's game against his former club, FC Groningen, which concludes the trip, van Dijk said: "I just want to get fit and be ready for a tough season, with the Europa League in it as well obviously, and hopefully we stay longer in the cup than we did last year, so I want to be fit, stay fit and give my everything for Southampton.”
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