Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk says he has paid little attention to how their Premier League title rivals have done over the festive period. After going top of the table with a win at Burnley on Boxing Day, manager Jurgen Klopp afforded the players the luxury of two days off in a five-day spell with no game before Mondays visit of Newcastle. In that time, newly crowned Club World Cup champions Manchester City won twice, at Everton and home to Sheffield United, while Arsenal lost against West Ham. Weve had a couple of days to spend with our families before we focus on another big game on New Years Day, Van Dijk said. Asked if he paid any attention to their rivals, he said: Not at all. I didnt even watch football. I was spending time with my family. Weve been away so much recently. On the title race, he continued: I dont speak about winning the league at this point. I dont think anyone in this team will do that because we know from experience that anything can happen. What we are striving for is consistency and just winning the game ahead of us, which has been key to our succe s previously. The Dutchman partnered the impre sive 20-year-old Jarell Quansah in central defence at Turf Moor but Klopps rotation policy is likely to see Ibrahima Konate return to face Newcastle on Monday evening. Van Dijk has been impre sed by Quansah in his breakthrough season, in which he has already made 14 appearances. That has eased some of the pre sure caused Newcastle United Jersey by Joel Matips ACL injury which is likely to rule him out for the remainder of the campaign and would have left Klopp with just three centre-backs. I think every challenge which came his way so far he has dealt with it outstandingly in my opinion, the Netherlands captain said. Hes 20 years old and is still growing. As a centre-half you get better with experience and I was never this far as Ibou (Konate) and Jarell when I was that young Paris Saint-Germain Jersey , doing it consistently. He just has to keep going as there are going to be times when it is going to be tough and thats absolutely normal and its how you deal with it. Hes learning and hes a good boy and mentally in the right frame of mind and thats a good start. Ill be there for him whenever he needs but at the end of the day he will be just fine. Quansahs self-confidence was evident in a television interview he did after the Europa League game against USG in which he sympathised with Matips situation but said his plan was always to get ahead of the 32-year-old in the pecking order. I think it came acro s not in the right way but its good that he thinks like this, Van Dijk said. I dont think he meant it in that way. Still, when I was 20 maybe I would say these sort of things but I totally understand where he is coming from. But he should not forget what Joel has meant for this club and the succe s we had.