3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest<\/a> that left Liverpool in the bottom half of the table with a negative goal difference. Tom Werner, the club\u2019s American chair, was at Anfield to witness Liverpool\u2019s sixth defeat in seven Premier League games, their eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions, and a performance that unravelled against a Forest side that started the day in the relegation zone.<\/p>\nVan Dijk described Liverpool\u2019s start to the second half as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and admitted \u201cpanic kicked in\u201d as soon as Murillo gave Sean Dyche\u2019s team the lead. Forest\u2019s opener was the ninth goal Liverpool have conceded from a set piece in the Premier League this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a great three or four days\u2019 preparation but in a game you are dealing with facts and the facts are we conceded a set piece in the first half and a terrible goal at the start of the second half,\u201d said Van Dijk. \u201cWe are definitely letting him [Slot] down, but we\u2019ve 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 \u2013 that\u2019s just a fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the champions we can\u2019t be in the situation we are in right now. What are we going to do about it? We\u2019re going to try to turn it around and that\u2019s the mentality everyone should have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arne Slot (right) cuts a frustrated figure during the loss to Nottingham Forest, afterwards accepting blame for his team\u2019s poor performance. Photograph: Matt West\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Van Dijk usually speaks with the media after a game as part of his duties as Liverpool captain. Saturday was different, however. His voice was much louder \u2013 so loud that any teammate in the Anfield tunnel could hear him \u2013 and he shook with anger while challenging the dressing room to respond. \u201cYou should be angry,\u201d he insisted. \u201cThe main thing for me is that everyone has to take responsibility.\u201d Asked whether that is happening, Van Dijk replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know. But you have to do that. It\u2019s the main thing I want the boys to do. It\u2019s not easy during difficult times but we have to do it if we want to get out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool spent almost \u00a3450m to replenish a title-winning squad in the summer but have gone backwards, with Alexander Isak, the \u00a3125m British-record signing, Florian Wirtz, who was absent against Forest but whose fee could reach \u00a3116m, the \u00a340m Milos Kerkez and the \u00a329.5m Jeremie Frimpong all failing to make an impact so far. Van Dijk insisted Liverpool\u2019s issues go beyond the new recruits. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I want is for everyone to take responsibility on the pitch. We have to do that in order to push each other, to make each other better. When someone is pressing, you have to follow the press. It\u2019s basic things but it\u2019s not happening enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dutchman added: \u201cThis season we don\u2019t have any consistency, we concede far too many goals, we are losing battles and everyone is responsible for it and I hope everyone sees that. We have to take responsibility to turn this around and it is easy to point fingers but you have to do it together. We have been through it together and won the league and everyone was part of it and happy, and when you go through a tough time you have to stick together and not point fingers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be a man and face the toughness and go again, again and again because if you want to give up then you are at the wrong place in my eyes, because this club has been going through many adversity over those years and we\u2019ve always come out of it. But it doesn\u2019t mean it is easy, it\u2019s tiring but there is no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up in the Premier League is a trip to West Ham next Sunday, after the midweek visit of PSV in the Champions League. Van Dijk said: \u201cWednesday is another game so what am I going to do, go home and cry? No, I\u2019m going to go home and try to think how we can turn this around and hopefully that is what everyone is doing as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk has delivered a scathing assessment of Liverpool\u2019s woeful title defence, the club captain admitting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-279120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}