Van Dijk throws Liverpool teammate ‘under the bus’ with public scolding amid Slot ‘gobbledygook’ | OneFootball

Arne Slot has been slammed for “talking gobbledygook” and Virgil van Dijk accused of throwing one of his Liverpool teammates “under the bus”.

Defeat to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup made it six defeats in seven for the reigning Premier League champions, and Slot was criticised after the game for ceding the tie by playing the kids.

The Reds welcome Aston Villa to Anfield on Saturday night as they look to revert a slide down the table which now sees them in seventh place below Manchester United having taken an early lead in the title race with five wins from five to start the campaign.

Slot has plenty of credit in the bank at Liverpool having led them to just their second Premier League title in his debut season in charge, but former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley insists Slot needs to “figure it out fast” after “talking gobbledygook” in recent weeks.

“We all said this guy speaks normally, pretty truthfully and with a lot of common sense,” Burley told ESPN. “What we are seeing here is a manager who, really for the first time in his Liverpool career, is being asked a lot of questions.

“He’s going down a path that a lot of managers go down and he’s talking gobbledygook. He’s talking about right-back and [Jeremie] Frimpong is out and is having to play [Conor] Bradley three times in a week. Back in the day, Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday was the norm. That’s not a big deal, it shouldn’t be for these super-fit players.

“He’s played [Dominik] Szoboszlai there and played Joe Gomez there hundreds of times. There is a lot of stuff the manager is trying to make an excuse because he can’t figure it out.

“He can’t figure out his best team, can’t get Florian Wirtz in the side and working so he took him out. He made a big boo-boo against Chelsea and Man Utd by playing Alexander Isak ahead of [Hugo] Ekitike and most people shared that sentiment.

“When Arne Slot went down to Stamford Bridge and got played off the park, outworked and outfought, Chelsea had more injuries than Liverpool.

“Chelsea had a makeshift back four and two centre-halves who had never played together or not many times. This is not a Liverpool thing, Arne Slot needs to figure this out fast.”

Burley also hit out at Liverpool captain Van Dijk for throwing Milos Kerkez “under the bus” through his public scolding of the summer signing.

“You can maybe look at the full-backs beside them and Kerkez has definitely struggled, but I have mentioned several times that Van Dijk is not helping him as a captain,” Burley added.

“He is really throwing him under the bus a little bit with his gesticulating to him in front of the crowd. As a young player, it just drains your confidence. But there is no doubt himself and [Ibrahima] Konate have not played well.”