Arne Slot under pressure before Champions League tie
Van Dijk questions togetherness after 15th loss of season
Virgil van Dijk believes Liverpool “gave up” during their FA Cup defeat at Manchester City and has apologised to fans for the woeful performance that heightens the pressure on Arne Slot.
A dejected Liverpool captain was unsparing in his assessment of the heaviest defeat of Slot’s reign and claimed it will be difficult for the team to recover for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain.
The admission that Liverpool effectively threw in the towel at the Etihad, where they conceded four goals in 18 minutes either side of the break, reflects badly on Slot in his attempts to salvage the Reds’ campaign. The Premier League champions have now lost 15 games in all competitions this season, excluding the Community Shield.
“It’s on us,” Van Dijk said. “The fans were there to support us and I can only apologise to the fans for what we have shown, especially the second half. It’s difficult. Mentally it has been a very tough season overall.
“You come out of the dressing room with the right intentions to score and make it 2-1 and change the game, but the opposite happened and then to come back from 3-0 is obviously very difficult here. But also you shouldn’t give up, and that’s maybe what happened at a certain point. Our second half, the intensity we didn’t match, the challenges we didn’t win, it was tough. To lose then 4-0 is tough.”
Van Dijk conceded the penalty that turned the FA Cup quarter-final in the 37th minute – the fourth spot-kick he has personally conceded this season having given away four in his previous 319 appearances for Liverpool – and admitted the team let down Slot and the supporters with their subsequent collapse.
On Slot, he added: “It’s a together thing, isn’t it? Obviously he’s responsible as the manager but we are the ones on the pitch that have to do it. I’ve been repeating myself too many times. We let our fans down. We let ourselves down and the manager, but we let our fans down. Up until the penalty, maybe not, but the way we played, especially in the second half, that must hurt for everyone. It definitely hurts me. So the focus is now on Paris away, but it’s tough. It will be a tough Sunday to digest it.”
Van Dijk was too despondent following the FA Cup defeat to issue a defiant message for the trip to Paris. He said it would be: “very difficult, very difficult” for Liverpool to lift themselves at Parc des Princes. “But we have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but especially to the fans and, if we want to make something out of this season, we have to try and do something special in the next three games.”
In another worrying sign for Slot, Van Dijk claimed the togetherness that has been the hallmark of his time at Liverpool is currently lacking in a team that was overhauled last summer.
“Their quality is there,” the Liverpool captain insisted. “I’ve been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years and the main thing always was the togetherness. Now, obviously, we are in a little bit of a transition so we have to find it. It’s still difficult to then perform every three days if we don’t have it consistently, if you know what I mean? The togetherness on the pitch to show it for 90-plus minutes every three or four days, that is difficult.”
