Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk delivered a blunt assessment of his side after a damaging Premier League result, insisting the squad must take responsibility for a run he called \u201ca mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are definitely letting him [Slot] down,\u201d Van Dijk fumed, \u201cbut we\u2019ve let ourselves down as well. You look at yourself first and then you help each other, you help each other get out of this mess because at the moment it is a mess\u2014that\u2019s just a fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the champions we can\u2019t be in the situation we are in right now. What are we going to do about it? We\u2019re going to try to turn it around and that\u2019s the mentality everyone should have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those words came amid sobering context: Liverpool have lost half of their opening 12 Premier League games for just the second time in the competition\u2019s 33-year history. The 2015\u201316 iteration of Chelsea are the only defending champions ever to have lost more league games at this point of a season than Slot\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should be angry,\u201d Van Dijk continued, clearly fitting that brief himself. \u201cThe main thing for me is that everyone has to take responsibility.\u201d When asked if teammates were following that instruction, Van Dijk admitted: \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he unconvincingly replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you have to do that. It\u2019s the main thing I want the boys to do. It\u2019s not easy during difficult times but we have to do it if we want to get out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public criticism has frequently fallen on the summer arrivals, signed for a combined outlay of \u00a3450 million ($588.6 million). The most expensive recruit, Alexander Isak, was singled out after another subdued showing on Saturday, though Van Dijk defended the group in part. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for everyone,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
Tactically the captain highlighted a lack of effort. \u201cWhen someone is pressing, you have to follow the press,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s basic things but it\u2019s not happening enough.\u201d He also reflected on specific match events. \u201cWe had a great three or four days\u2019 preparation,\u201d the Dutch international continued, \u201cbut in a game you are dealing with facts and the facts are we conceded a set piece in the first half and a terrible goal at the start of the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Dijk was keen to stress that he is not a \u201cquitter.\u201d \u201cYou have to be a man and face the toughness and go again, again and again because if you want to give up then you are at the wrong place in my eyes, because this club has been going through many adversity over those years and we\u2019ve always come out of it,\u201d Liverpool \u2019s captain seethed. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean it is easy, it\u2019s tiring but there is no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool return to Anfield on Wednesday for a Champions League tie against PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk demanded responsibility from teammates as Liverpool struggle, calling the situation a mess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[195,299,1006],"class_list":["post-4656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}