After three weak games, Liverpool hit back with a 9-0 thrashing of Bournemouth, and thus grabbed their first win in the Premier League this year. It lifts the Reds to ninth in the table with five points.

That’s points behind Wednesday’s opponents, Newcastle, who are two places ahead of Liverpool in the table.

– After losing to United, we just wanted the next game to come quickly and that’s good for us because we only had to wait four days. Everyone is very motivated, Virgil van Dijk told the press after the game against Bournemouth.

– Luckily, we didn’t get any new injuries for a week before this game, which is a nice change. We obviously played a very good game. We didn’t have much luck at the start of the season. Now we really want to come out and get a good result.

– I don’t like looking back. I like to look ahead. This is a great start to the rest of the season. Nice win, one we can build on. But there is never any guarantee that we will continue like this. That’s certainly what we want to do, and that’s what we’re working on. We’ll try to do that, and we’ll start with that on Monday.

Nunez has the last game of his suspension

Van Dijk and Liverpool are now focused on Wednesday’s clash against Newcastle. The Dutchman is expecting a much tougher match against Eddie Howe’s crew.

– It will be a tough match. They are a good team and have a good manager. The game against them last year was very difficult. We will enjoy the win over Bournemouth for half a day, and then focus on this game.

Liverpool have once again had to do without summer signing Darwin Nunez, who will serve the final game of his ban for sending off against Crystal Palace. This means, Roberto Firmino has another chance at the top of the table after his two goals against Bournemouth.

– We know what qualities Roberto has, and we never doubted him. It’s more about how you deal with everything that comes from the outside world. That goes for him and the team. We cannot listen to people who have no influence on our performance. We know what he can contribute and he showed it again against Bournemouth.

– He clearly wants to win, and when we don’t win he is cursed, and when we win he is happy. That’s how it should be. He wants to perform at his best, because he is a quality player. Against Bournemouth, he showed that he is a world class player.

Liverpool – Newcastle will be played at Anfield on Wednesday at 21:00, and will be live on V sport Premier League and Viaplay.