After losing to Crystal Palace on penalties in the Community Shield on Sunday afternoon, Liverpool’s 2025–26 season got off to a bad start. Following the defeat, Virgil van Dijk made a clear transfer demand to Arne Slot and his group.
Hugo Ekitike opened the scoring four minutes into the game, and it was 2-2 at the end of ninety minutes. Palace goalie Dean Henderson came up again, and Justin Devenny’s well-placed penalty kick was the game-winning goal.
The Reds haven’t been scared to spend this summer after winning the Premier League in Slot’s debut season, but after losing to Oliver Glasner’s team, club captain Van Dijk has pleaded with the Dutch tactician to keep spending.
The south Londoners were a difficult test for Slot, who is considered to be among the best managers in the world of football, and his team, even though they started quickly with a goal from Ekitike. Particularly in the second half, it became evident that the defending English champions frequently waste the last third.
Van Dijk is eager to see more faces this summer as a result. After the match, the former Southampton defender told talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook that more attacking reinforcements are needed because Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz were lost to Al-Hilal and Bayern Munich, respectively. He stated:
“Well, we just lost Darwin, He went to Saudi, and we lost Lucho [Luis Diaz], obviously he went to Bayern. I think there’s always room for an attacker in order to strengthen us so let’s see what the window brings in terms of the balance of the team.”
Although Van Dijk did not specify who, you can bet your bottom dollar that he is suggesting that Liverpool’s management should go back to the negotiating table for Alexander Isak, a striker for Newcastle United who is eager to join Anfield.
According to reports, Newcastle rejected the club’s first offer for the Swedish shooter, which was estimated to be around £110 million. He may be open to a move because he is currently unwilling to sign a new contract in the northeast.
However, Slot thinks Liverpool’s forward position is well-stocked. We have plenty of options, in my opinion, to be competitive enough to win again. I concentrate on myself here. We should be able to win and score with the players we have. Actually, that’s what we excelled at. We only scored one goal against them last season, both at home and away, compared to two this season.
“We could only score one against them. So my last concern at the moment is our offensive quality. It’s more. It’s not a concern, but if I look at the amount of goals we’ve conceded in preseason. That’s not of our standard.”