Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk delivered a clear warning after a damaging league defeat that followed a 4\u20130 midweek victory over Galatasaray. The sequence encapsulated the Reds’ defining problem this season: an inability to follow one good display with another.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said over the last months the same thing: We can\u2019t build on a good performance,\u201d Van Dijk said after the defeat. \u201cThat is something that has to change if we are to achieve what we are trying to achieve, and that is Champions League football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Dijk made the point that responsibility lies with the players. \u201cIt\u2019s down to us and so we have to do it as players, as a group. If we change that, then obviously we can be a very dangerous force, but at the moment, we are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
That inconsistency helps explain why Liverpool sit fifth in the Premier League this season. The campaign has been affected by a slow start for blockbuster summer signings, a mountain of injuries and Mohamed Salah\u2019s poor form. Yet the most troubling symptom remains how quickly the team can switch from confident, dominant performances to matches in which the side looks uncreative and vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Recent months have offered repeated examples: commanding victories followed by baffling defeats. The club has collected just one point out of a possible nine in March, leaving a fraught final two months as Liverpool attempt to hold off Chelsea for the fifth and presumed final Champions League spot for English clubs next season.<\/p>\n
Injuries are compounding the problem. Alexander Isak, Wataru End\u014d, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni are long-term absentees. Mohamed Salah is nursing a muscular injury, Alisson is out for the foreseeable future, Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 was forced off after eight minutes at the Amex Stadium and Federico Chiesa withdrew from Italy\u2019s squad for the international break.<\/p>\n
Losing Ekitik\u00e9 at the weekend was notable in the context of the side\u2019s attacking options. “When Hugo comes off, and you look at the team, there was not a lot of runs in behind,” Van Dijk explained.<\/p>\n
The message from the captain was unambiguous: the pattern cannot continue if Liverpool are to reach their stated objective of Champions League football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk urges change as Liverpool struggle for consistency and face a tense run to secure top four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1505,1081,1047],"class_list":["post-9491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-adaptation","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9491","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=9491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}