Virgil van Dijk hailed the vocal presence of Alisson Becker in the Liverpool back line after the goalkeeper marked his Premier League debut with a clean sheet against West Ham.

Signed from AS Roma last month in a deal worth up to £59million, Alisson enjoyed a low-key start to his competitive career for Liverpool on Sunday, facing just two shots on target and saving both with little fuss in a 4-0 win.

In the absence of any sustained attacking threat from the visitors, Van Dijk was impressed by the way his new teammate organised the back four and distributed the ball.

And he believes the Reds' defensive unit as a whole can only improve given more time to build an understanding.

Asked how Alisson has settled in so far, the Dutchman said: “Very good. We speak a lot. He’s very vocal and that helps.

"It helps me and everyone in the back line. I think his presence is very good as well.

"He has a lot of qualities on the ball that helps us playing. We’ve worked on [our relationship] the whole pre-season and we’ll keep practising. There’s still a lot to do.

“It’s just one game. We had a good pre-season with good results and games where we’ve played very well.

"But we can do a lot better and it’s just the start. I think the key is we need to be very consistent and do it every game.”

Jurgen Klopp was without the services of three central defenders for the visit of the Hammers, with Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan all unable to feature due to injury.

That meant a start at centre-half for the inexperienced Joe Gomez, but Van Dijk had no concerns over his young colleague's ability to cope.

He added: “I was not really worried, to be fair.

"I’ve played a couple of games pre-season with Joe at centre back and I have a very good relationship with him, a very good understanding outside of the pitch as well.

"We need everyone in the squad.”

Liverpool underlined their status as potential challengers to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City as they moved top of the division at the first time on asking on Sunday.

Van Dijk insists he feels no pressure as a result of the expectations placed upon the Reds this season, however.

He continued: “Of course, we want to challenge. I do not feel any pressure in that case but we play every game to win, that’s how our mindset is.

"Today, our focus was good and now we recover before focusing on Crystal Palace on Wednesday, which is going to be a very tough game.

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“The most important thing is that we look at ourselves. We know that right now we have a great squad. We have a lot of quality players. Everyone who plays for Liverpool has a lot of quality.

"It’s all about being consistent. We want to challenge for any competition. But we must look at ourselves.”