Virgil van Dijk said there was “no point” looking at the Premier League table after Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, but said he was confident the club could turn its season around.
Arne Slott’s side suffered their fifth league defeat of the season at the Etihad Stadium, as goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku sealed victory for the hosts. The result left Liverpool in eighth place, eight points behind leaders Arsenal, but Van Dijk believes his team should not focus on the title race.
“There’s no point in looking at the table for us, that’s all,” the defender said.
“I don’t think there’s any benefit for us. If you lose as many games as we lose, I don’t think we can look at the schedule at this point, but I’ve been in the game long enough (to know) that seasons aren’t decided in November or December.”
“When it comes to March or April, it becomes very interesting how things shape up there. We want to be there but there is a long way to go and a lot of hard work to do. So we have to stay humble and we have to keep working and that is the only goal and the only thing we have to focus on.”
Van Dijk thought he had canceled out Haaland’s opener with a header late in the first half, but the goal was disallowed after Andy Robertson was controversially adjudged to be obstructing Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of vision.
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“I don’t know who was in the video assistant referee, Michael Oliver,” Van Dijk said. “I think the officials on the field and the duo behind the screen have to make the right decisions for the match.”
“Today it was decided not to give the goal because Andy Robertson was, for whatever reason, holding up Donnarumma, but I think the goal should have been given, that’s all I’ll say. But I’m not the one who makes the decisions.”
Reflecting on how Liverpool recovered from their recent defeat, the Dutchman added: “Don’t forget results like this. If you forget these things, you won’t get better. You can’t only think about the good things all the time. You have to think about the mistakes that happened today and how we can improve them.”
“You have to feel that responsibility, I definitely feel that. What could we have done better? And you have to take that into the next matches. I don’t think there’s any reason to rush, we faced some strong opponents this week and we got two wins from three and we have to keep going.”
“It’s a difficult season so far for many reasons, but I’m confident we can turn that around. It doesn’t happen overnight, we have to keep working and we need everyone to be fit to continue to help us, so that’s key for all of us in the dressing room.”
