Liverpool squad hold tough talks as Van Dijk ‘really frustrated’

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has admitted that he and his team-mates will hold tough talks after their bitterly disappointing 4-1 defeat to Manchester City. Jurgen Klopp’s men are in the midst of a terrible campaign and only have the top four left to play for, a challenge that is becoming more difficult by the game. 

Liverpool’s dire season shows no signs of improving any time soon after they were comfortably defeated by the reigning champions at the Eithad on Saturday. The Reds had taken an early lead through Mo Salah but goals from Julian Alvarez, Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish turned the tide as the Sky Blues emerged as comfortable victors. 

Liverpool currently languish in eighth place in the Premier League and have a fight on their hands to close the seven-point gap to Tottenham in order to claim a Champions League place. Van Dijk has admitted that tough talks will be held internally in the coming days as the club seek to address their current issues. 

“If you’re losing the way we lost, then definitely there will be some hard talking,” the Dutchman explained after the game. “That’s really normal, we’re grown men and we’ll see. It was a tough afternoon, definitely. Very frustrated. That’s the feeling.

“We’re going to have a meeting together, but the turnaround is quite quick, with Chelsea on Tuesday, so tomorrow’s a big day.”

While tough discussion will be had in the coming days Klopp admitted he had little to say to his players straight after the game with the team’s performance leaving him somewhat lost for words. 

“We have to do that (assess the game) tomorrow,” the Reds boss said. “I told the boys there is nothing from my side to say tonight. Everything is obvious. Everybody needs to think about it himself. And tomorrow we have to talk about it, but that is nothing for now.

“It’s not a lot of time but there’s time because we play Tuesday. We should play better, especially more consistently. Being good when you are feeling good is okay, but not being good when you don’t feel 100 per cent is obviously not possible in the Premier League and that is what is happening at the moment.”

Liverpool will look to get back to winning ways on Tuesday when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge with the Blues suffering a similarly disappointing season under Graham Potter.