Virgil van Dijk believes the Liverpool team are still united but that their main problem is a lack of consistency.
This season, Liverpool have found none of the fluidity, creativity and doggedness that characterised their title-winning campaign last term. The weekend’s 3-2 loss to Bournemouth ended an unconvincing run of 13 games unbeaten in all competitions after slack defending let them down for all three goals.
“I don’t think there’s any question about our togetherness,” Van Dijk said. “But the consistency that we’re looking for, that’s something that still needs to be found. That’s the reality.
“There was a lot of praise for our performances, a lot of individual praise, and we know how it works and three days later [after Marseille] you lose a game like we did and the other side of the world comes out. That’s something we have to deal with.
“But we want to perform, we want to win games and it didn’t happen unfortunately.”
Van Dijk was culpable for the first goal, failing to properly clear the ball at the byline as Bournemouth’s Alex Scott worked hard to cut it back, while his teammate Evanilson dispatched the chance.
“It was a difficult ball to judge during the circumstances – the wind was very tricky,” Van Dijk said in defence. “I think you saw it especially when we played long balls on their side, it was very difficult to judge.”
