A furious Virgil van Dijk slammed his Liverpool team-mates after the Reds lost at home to Manchester United. Brian Mbeumo opened the scoring for the visitors just 61 seconds later, and Kodi Gakpo equalized in the second half after hitting the post three times. But that wasn’t the end of the story, as Harry Maguire’s late header United snatched victory.
The result meant Liverpool had lost their fourth consecutive match in all competitions, and Van Dijk was clearly unhappy after the final whistle. He suggested it was too easy for United to score the second goal and accused his team-mates of being “too quick”. The tall Dutchman also stressed the importance of coming together and making things right next time.
“I think we conceded the second goal very sloppily,” coach Van Dijk said. “We worked hard to get back into the game and created some great chances to score the winning goal, but when you concede a second goal like that, that’s the disappointing part.
“If you look at the whole game, we rushed too much. I think they were very patient and didn’t press us too high, but they didn’t let us give the ball away. We still created a lot of chances to score, but the reality is we lost.”
“These are interesting times because we have to come together, not only as players, but also as a club and as fans who want us to win.”
There was a hint of controversy in the build-up to United’s opening goal, with Alexis Mac Allister taking a blow to the head as he went to steal the ball. The match was allowed to continue and the Red Devils continued on, taking the lead.
“I think the ball went long. The first header was from a United player and the second from me,” Van Dijk said. “My elbow hit the player, he went down, I went down too. It was difficult to score at that angle, but he scored.
“There was a lot of football left to play (and score) and we didn’t do it. We need to stay humble, keep working and keep our confidence as high as possible.”
“It’s important to keep that mentality of being there for each other when the going gets tough. The season is long.”
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp also suggested that Liverpool lacked composure throughout the match and that the psychological struggles of being at the back end seemed to be taking a toll.
“There were so many chances and Cody Gakpo could have had three or four (goals), but there was always an atmosphere of desperation at Liverpool and there was no composure in this game,” Redknapp said.
“I’ve never felt so calm at Liverpool. It was a shock to lose four games and I don’t think we expected it to happen. All the new players looked like great signings, but now there are more questions than answers.”
