Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has been critical of the club’s defeats against Crystal Palace and Galatasaray, respectively. However, after the loss against Chelsea, the centre-back took a different approach as he explained the various reasons for the recent dip in performance.
London was a tough one again for the Reds as the Merseysiders haven’t won a single game in the capital this season. Out of the four losses this season, three have been in the capital.
The first one came in the FA Community Shield game, where the club lost at Wembley to Palace. Then another visit to the capital at Selhurst Park ended up in a 2-1 win for the home side.
A game in Turkey followed, but Slot’s men were disappointed again. Galatasaray won 1-0 in Istanbul as the Reds returned to London at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Maresca awaited their arrival despite losing eight players to injuries. Another last-minute winner meant the Blues played Liverpool at their own game.
Virgil van Dijk season comments
Virgil van Dijk claims that the season was always going to be tough (Credits: Imago Images)
Usually critical of the team, Van Dijk empathised a bit this time around, outlining the problems at Anfield. The Reds lost their top spot to Arsenal as Mikel Arteta will be expecting to widen the gap after the international break.
“It was always going to be a tough season, I’ve mentioned. Nobody said that it was going to be plain sailing whatsoever. It was always going to be ups and downs for multiple reasons that we shouldn’t forget, and all we have to do is stick together.”
“It’s been a tough week. A tough 10 days or something like that, more or less, but we know that the only way to get out of this is sticking together, keep working and yeah, onto the next one”, the skipper told ViaPlay.
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On the international break and sticking together
The Dutchman has now shifted his focus to the October international break as he expects to solve the problems at Anfield later. “But obviously first we’ve got internationals and then we focus on a very big one at Anfield.”
The Dutch international also talked about sticking together and how they’ll get through this, too. He also felt the game could’ve gone both ways, but they need to do better, nevertheless.
“I felt like it could have gone both ways. It was wide open at times and that’s obviously for the neutral, it’s quite nice to see, but obviously for us it’s disappointing that we lost so work to do.”
“But stick together, stick together no matter what. And that’s how we’ve always been doing with Liverpool, and we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, and that’s the only way to stick together.”
