Van Dijk, 26, has completed a £75million move to Anfield which went through today following the reopening of the transfer window.

The Dutchman was in the stands to watch Liverpool beat Leicester on Saturday and he is now available for selection.

Liverpool today published the first full length interview with Van Dijk on their official website along with scores of pictures.

And Van Dijk reacted by releasing his own statement to his 192,000 Twitter follows.

The centre-back wrote: "Happy New Year everyone! It was an amazing experience for me to go to Anfield on Saturday and watch the team. Great to get the win.

"Thank you to all of the fans and everyone at the club for the reception you gave me it meant a lot to me and my family.

"I will always look back on 2017 as an important year in my life and I'm now excited to go into 2018 as a red! Here's to a big and successful year ahead."

Van Dijk's new Liverpool team-mate Georginio Wijnaldum expects more 'big players' to follow in signing for Liverpool.

"Liverpool is a big club that will always sign big players," Wijnaldum said.

"In the squad, everyone will be happy if big players come to the club because it gives you a better chance of winning games and winning trophies.

"Everyone is excited, not only the players but also the fans and the people at the club. We’re always excited if players choose Liverpool [when] they could also choose other teams.

"He [Van Dijk] can help us to win something because he is a good player, he already showed that at Southampton. It’s good for us – if you train with better players, you can improve and get better. It’s good for everyone that he’s coming to Liverpool."