After Liverpool misplaced 3-0 to Atalanta within the Europa League, Virgil van Dijk admitted the Reds “have been vast open” and criticised “particular person errors” from his workforce.
Liverpool’s first defeat at Anfield for almost 14 months was a tricky one to take, with the Reds now needing an unimaginable efficiency in Bergamo to undergo to the semi-finals.
Chatting with TNT Sports, captain Van Dijk admitted it was a “very disappointing night” with “too many particular person errors” costing Liverpool.
The Dutchman defined: “I believe clearly, with the man-marking system they do, we’ve got to do significantly better when we’ve got the ball. We have now to maintain the ball longer.
“Too many particular person errors”
Virgil van Dijk displays on surprising 3-0 loss to Atalanta at Anfield…
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“We have now to deal with Crystal Palace, we’ve got to bounce again. We have now to maintain the ball longer and stronger they usually received the 50-50 challenges more often than not. Areas have been open. Clearly they punished us instantly and that’s what occurs.”
Liverpool had 70 % of the ball however have been far much less efficient than Atalanta in possession – the guests had seven massive possibilities in line with Fotmob.
Van Dijk continued: “We have been vast open nevertheless it’s extra that we conceded the targets as a result of we misplaced the balls in tough moments, and that’s why we have been vast open.
“It’s a collective factor ultimately and we’ve got to do significantly better and everyone knows this. It hurts like I mentioned, however can’t pull us down and we’ve got to react fairly rapidly.
“It hurts, in fact we didn’t lose right here for a very long time, however credit score to them. We shouldn’t take the credit score to them away.
“They punished us or being sloppy particularly in possession and clearly we nonetheless had possibilities to do it, to attain no less than one or two. Sadly we didn’t.”
Issues didn’t go nicely at both finish of the pitch tonight for Liverpool. It was solely the second time this season they’ve failed to attain, one thing Van Dijk was clearly pissed off about.
Liverpool must re-find their kind towards Crystal Palace on Sunday, to maintain them within the Premier League title race and achieve some momentum forward of the second leg.
