Virgil van Dijk pinpoints how Liverpool can save their season | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk insisted Liverpool can still turn their season around after the champions slumped to eighth in the Premier League with Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

The captain said Liverpool can’t look at the table now after suffering their fifth league defeat of what he called a difficult campaign and said it is “obvious” they have to improve.

Liverpool have lost five of their last six Premier League matches and Van Dijk feels they need to be humble to get back on track.

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(Getty)

He said: “It’s a difficult season so far for many reasons but I am confident we can turn this around. It doesn’t happen overnight, we have to keep working and we need everyone to be fit to keep helping us, so that is the key for all of us in the dressing room.

“There’s no point looking at the table for us. If you lose as many games as we have lost, I don’t think we can look at the table at this point but I have been in the game quite a long time [to know] that seasons aren’t decided in November or December.

“It’s when it comes to March, April, when it starts to become very interesting how it all shapes up up there. We want to be there but there’s a long way to go and a lot of hard work to be put in. So we have to stay humble and we have to keep working.

“It is still only November, there’s so many games to be played but it is very obvious that there is work to be done and we have to work on improving and that is the only thing we can focus on.”

Liverpool had arrived at the Etihad Stadium after securing back-to-back wins over Aston Villa in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League and Van Dijk said that made defeat to City a still more bitter pill to swallow.

He added: “That is why it feels maybe a bit more disappointing at this point because you work so hard on those two games as a whole, as a team to get the clean sheet and the goals that we scored.”

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Virgil van Dijk was unhappy to have a goal controversially disallowed during the Man City loss (Getty Images)

Van Dijk disagreed with the decision to disallow what had seemed a goal for him, when he headed in Mohamed Salah’s corner for what looked an equaliser. Andy Robertson was offside, but without touching the ball, and Van Dijk felt it brought a shift in momentum in the match.

“I don’t know who was on the VAR, Michael Oliver?” he said. “I think therefore, the officials at the stadium and the couple behind the screen have to make the right decisions for the game. It was decided the goal wouldn’t stand because Andy Robertson was, for any reason, hindering [goalkeeper Gianluigi] Donnarumma but I think the goal should have stood, that is all I will say.

“Games are decided by small margins and I think it was that. City deserved it in the end, so that is not a problem but momentum is very important in a game and that could have shifted to our side a couple of times, but unfortunately it didn’t.

“I’ve already said too much because the thing is, the decision has been made, we lost 3-0 and we don’t make excuses in that sense. We lost 3-0, we have to take it on the chin and move on. How tough it is is obviously a hit but we have to keep going.”