Ahead of the Merseyside derby, Virgil van Dijk has warned “sloppy” Liverpool players about the title race.
The captain of Anfield has urged Arne Slot’s undefeated team to be aggressive and go into battle mode for the trip to Goodison Park.
On Wednesday night, Liverpool was thrashed by fast-paced Newcastle at St. James’ Park and fell behind twice.In a thrilling 3-3 draw, Fabian Schar’s last-minute equalizer erased the lead that Mo Salah’s goals had clawed back.
Strong words were exchanged in the Liverpool dressing room at halftime after Slot and Van Dijk both criticized the team’s lack of effort in the first half, which gave Newcastle the lead.
Van Dijk believes they must return to the fundamentals of “winning battles, winning duels, winning 50/50 challenges” in order to avoid any mistakes, stating that the title race will have ups and downs and is far from over.
“It was a poor first half as a collective, with and without the ball, but second half I think we showed what we’re capable of,” the Dutch defender continued, adding that there was “nothing” to update on his contract renewal negotiations. Although we clearly scored goals and began to win battles and 50/50 challenges, we were unable to cross the finish line.
“What was missing? difficulties. We weren’t very good at that, and Newcastle gained momentum. You know, when you play here, they have an advantage over us. Their fans support them, and they win their challenges. We occasionally made mistakes when in possession, but we had fifty minutes to correct ourselves, and we did, but we were unable to cross the finish line.
“At half-time I had a few things to say and others as well. You can talk about tactics but it was about winning battles and duels and second ball fights and putting them under pressure. We did that in the second half but it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
After defeating Wolves 4-0, Everton will try to duplicate their performance from the previous season, when they triumphed and essentially put an end to Liverpool’s title challenge. Upon hearing that, Van Dijk had a message for the city’s blue half: “Who said that? The Everton fans can chant whatever they want!
“That game was very disappointing in so many ways but Saturday is another opportunity. It’s a game they will definitely be up for and we will be as well. I’m really looking forward to going there with our fans and hopefully we get the three points and move on.
“I knew already that we were going to have ups and downs throughout the whole season. This is not a real down, but it feels a bit disappointing. We go home now and tomorrow we’ll be back fresh and ready to attack the next challenge.”
So, despite a seven-point lead, the title race is still very much in play? “You have to maybe say it to all the people who are speaking about the gap we have created,” Van Dijk said. Salah scored twice and got an assist for Curtis Jones’ goal, and Van Dijk said: “I want him to be important like he was for us again in the second half and Saturday is another big one so he can keep going.”
Additionally, keeper Caoimhin Kelleher received a message for his last-minute mistake prior to the Toon goal. “Unfortunately, these things do happen in football, and he must continue.” “Don’t listen to the reaction of people, they will be very harsh on him in my opinion. There will always be people out there … but he’s had an outstanding season so far he has to keep going and we need him ready and fully focused again to be out on the pitch in how many hours is it now?
“He’ll learn from this like we all have to learn from the first half especially to be ready for a very, very big one on Saturday which is going to be very tough.”