Club captain wants the team to work together and turn things around
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk says he and his teammates have let manager Arne Slot and themselves down. The centre-back said the club were now in “a mess” after the 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest left them in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
“The main thing for me is that everyone has to take responsibility,” Van Dijk said. “Is that happening? I don’t know. But you have to do that if you want to get out of this.”
Liverpool have now lost six of their last seven league games and sit 11th with a negative goal difference. Their latest defeat saw Forest, who began the afternoon in the relegation zone, ease to their biggest win at Anfield in more than three decades.
Forest opened the scoring with a set piece, making it the ninth time Liverpool have conceded from a set piece in the league this season. It has become a major weakness for Slot’s team. An early second-half collapse then handed Sean Dyche’s side full control of proceedings.
Van Dijk said: “We are definitely letting [Slot] down, but we’ve 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. That’s just a fact.”
The Liverpool captain said the team “panicked” after Murillo’s first-half opener and never managed to recover.
“As the champions we can’t be in the situation we are in right now,” said Van Dijk. “What are we going to do about it? We’re going to try to turn it around and that’s the mentality everyone should have.”
Liverpool spent heavily in the summer to refresh the squad, including huge fees for Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, but the performances have declined. Van Dijk insisted the problems were not down to the new arrivals.
“It’s tough for everyone,” said Van Dijk. “What I want is for everyone to take responsibility on the pitch. When someone is pressing, you have to follow the press. It’s basic things but it’s not happening enough.”
However, Liverpool’s captain also called for unity in the squad and said they had to fight their way back as a team.
“It is easy to point fingers but you have to do it together,” said Van Dijk. “We have been through it together and won the league, and when you go through a tough time you have to stick together and not point fingers.”
