Virgil van Dijk was asked whether he can understand the doubts among the Liverpool fans ahead of the upcoming season. The Reds have lost two first-team players in Henderson and Fabinho, having previously released Firmino, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita.
"Yeah, I can definitely understand it in some ways. But I’m not a very negative person, so obviously it’s not in my mind to think like that," the defender said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
"But obviously when a lot of players are leaving, when your captain is leaving, your vice-captain is leaving, and at the moment there are only two incomings, and the way we have been playing - in possession really good, but defensively when you concede goals it’s not as good - I can understand some people having doubts.
"But the most important thing as we’ve seen over the years is the consistency, as a group, everyone in the squad. Let’s see if more players are coming in, and then we have to be ready again for a long season.
"It will be very tough if we look at the teams around us, but we want to be up there again, we want to be challenging again, and the only way to do it is with the consistency that we’ve shown over the previous years, apart from last year which was very disappointing.
"We have to be confident, we should be confident and we should still be learning each and every day. We should be excited. I’m very excited, so let’s give it a go.
"The players who left us were big characters in the squad, on and off the pitch. That is something we all have to fill in again. The boys who are coming in are of a world class level in my opinion. We see Macca and Dom and it is incredible how they operate especially with the ball and try and get used to the way we defend as well.
"That is a work in progress but there are roles to be filled and taken over and everyone has to do it in their own way, and I am very confident that will happen. There have been players leaving who have played a big part in the success, but others have to step up. That’s a nice challenge, in my opinion."
