Virgil van Dijk has described the way Liverpool have allowed the season to end as unacceptable and admitted they do not deserve to win the Premier League.
Just over a month ago Liverpool were chasing an unprecedented but unlikely quadruple but a week after exiting Europe their Premier League title hopes were left in tatters after a 2-0 defeat at Everton.
Jürgen Klopp’s final season is likely to end with only the Carabao Cup and Van Dijk criticised a lack of appetite to drag things back in their favour.
“Games likes these, the bare minimum is fight,” the captain said, reflecting on the derby. “We were lacking that at so many moments in games. If you play like we did, obviously even if we create two or three clearcut chances again, you don’t deserve to win the league.
“It’s crunch time and we’ve not been good enough in the way we finished the chances off, in the way we defended together and also the fight. I think we have to show much more. But we have to look in the mirror and each and every one of us has to think like: ‘Listen, you can’t accept this. You can’t accept the way we let our season end.’”
Liverpool have not been playing well for a couple of months and although they have pulled a few results out of the fire they have uncharacteristically crumbled at the key time.
after newsletter promotion
“It’s a mix of everything,” Van Dijk said. “You can’t put a finger on it. It’s confidence, inexperience, challenges, maybe afraid to make mistakes in this part of the season. I don’t know … We have to stick together. We can’t have groups blaming each other.”