Virgil van Dijk has been accused of throwing Milos Kerkes under the bus after publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with his Liverpool team-mates. Kelkes has endured a difficult start to life at Anfield after joining from Bournemouth in the summer. He has always been singled out for his dominant performances, but struggled again against Crystal Palace in midweek.
Gary Neville was among those to criticize Kerkes, saying he looked like a “youth team player” in last month’s defeat to Chelsea. Van Dijk also showed signs of discomfort at times, with the Liverpool captain often barking at Kerkes during matches. Former Chelsea and Celtic midfielder Craig Burley believes the Dutchman is taking the wrong approach.
“If you look at the full-backs next to them, you can see that Kerkes is definitely struggling, but I’ve said it many times that Van Dijk hasn’t helped him as captain,” he told ESPN.
“He’s throwing him under the bus a little bit, gesticulating in front of the crowd. As a young player, that just takes away your confidence. But there’s no doubt that he and (Ibrahima) Konate are not playing well.”
Burley also criticized Arne Slott, accusing him of “talking rubbish” and making excuses for Liverpool’s problems. He pointed out that it is ultimately Slot’s responsibility to turn things around.
“We all said this guy speaks normally, fairly honestly, and with a lot of common sense,” Burley added. “What we’re seeing here is a manager who, for the first time really in his Liverpool career, is being asked a lot of questions.
“He’s following in the footsteps of a lot of managers and saying some crazy things. He’s talking about right-backs and having to play (Conor) Bradley three times a week with (Jeremy) Frimpong out. It used to be Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. That’s not a big deal and with these super-fit players it shouldn’t be.
“He has played there hundreds of times with (Dominik) Szoboszlai, he has played hundreds of times with Joe Gomez there. There are a lot of things that the manager tries to make excuses because he doesn’t understand.
“He couldn’t figure out his best team, he couldn’t get Florian Wirtz in there and make it work, so he left him out. He played Alexander Isak ahead of (Ugo) Ekitike against Chelsea and Man United, which caused huge boos and almost everyone shared that sentiment.”
“Chelsea had more injuries than Liverpool when Arn Slott went down to Stamford Bridge and was played off the park and lost the game.
“Chelsea had a back four and two centre-halves on short notice who had never played together or played very often. This is not a Liverpool problem. Arne Slott needs to understand this quickly.”
