Virgil van Dijk calls for calm after latest Liverpool loss in typically up-front reflection | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has called for a sense of perspective after Liverpool fell to a second defeat in four days away to Galatasaray on Tuesday night.

September ended on a low ebb for the Reds, who were deservedly beaten at Crystal Palace on Saturday and then lost 1-0 in Istanbul as their Champions League campaign took an early setback.

The Premier League champions had won seven successive games in all competitions prior to that pair of results, although the frequent reliance on decisive late goals led to some pundits questioning whether Arne Slot’s side had simply been lucky in the early weeks of the season.

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Van Dijk: No need for ‘panic’ at Liverpool

Van Dijk called for calm after Liverpool’s defeat to Galatasaray, but admitted that his team’s performances need to improve from what they’ve shown recently.

When asked by Gabriel Clarke for Amazon Prime Video Sport whether the Reds are lacking the ‘authority’ they exhibited for most of last season, the captain replied: “I think we have showed it already in many games this season but we couldn’t show it for the full 90 minutes yet, unfortunately.

“It is absolutely normal that you need time if you come to a new place, new team, new demands. On and off the pitch, that’s absolutely normal, but nowadays you don’t get the time from the outside world so you have to be strong mentally.

“I am very confident and I’m not worried that things won’t click, but we have to keep working, keep improving and stick together. That’s what we’ve always been doing in my time at Liverpool.

“We had a fantastic year last year and we’ve had a good start in terms of points tally this year. We’ve had many good moments in the games we’ve played so far, but obviously losing twice in a row doesn’t feel good. I hate losing. There shouldn’t be panic, but improvement is needed.”

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Van Dijk inevitably strikes the right tone with frank assessment

Unsurprisingly, Van Dijk has sounded the perfect tone with his up-front verdict after last night’s defeat – there’s no need for headloss at Liverpool, but the quality of performances has been well below what the Reds are capable of and what’s required to win major silverware this season.

Whereas the first half in particular against Palace was atrocious, we actually started brightly in Istanbul and should’ve been 1-0 up just before Galatasaray were awarded a very soft penalty, with Hugo Ekitike spurning a glorious chance to break the deadlock when through on goal.

Unfortunately, we didn’t really do enough to seriously threaten the home side, and it wasn’t as though the Turkish champions were clinging on at the end for their victory.

Van Dijk is right, though – now isn’t the time for panic at Liverpool. We’re still top of the Premier League (losing only to an excellent Eagles side) and have six more games to secure an automatic passage to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Hopefully the Reds will first and foremost go into the October international break off the back of a win over Chelsea on Saturday, and ideally match it with a performance befitting of their status as champions of England.