Virgil van Dijk was a colossus in defence for Liverpool last night, but sadly, it wasn’t enough to stop Manchester City scoring two goals.
He was at fault for neither and in our opinion was maybe the best player on the park.
We are still four points ahead of City in the race for the Premier League title, but have lost our undefeated record.
Disappointed to suffer our first defeat of the @premierleague this season, but we keep going!🔝💪 pic.twitter.com/UefD9iIcJF
— Virgil van Dijk (@VirgilvDijk) January 4, 2019
It’s unfortunate, but by no means catastrophic. We are still in the driving seat and it’s in our hands.
“We knew it was going to be a very tough season and there will be ups and downs and Thursday was obviously a down,” he told Sky Sports.
“You just have to keep going and bounce back and that is something we are definitely going to do.
“It was an intense game for both teams. They won and we are very disappointed but we will focus on recovering and making sure we are ready for the next game.
“We are disappointed we lost but there is no reason for panic. For us it was just another important Premier League game. Unfortunately we lost and couldn’t get a result.
“Fair play to City and congratulations to them but we just have to keep going.”
Van Dijk’s central defensive partner last night, Dejan Lovren, has come in for plenty of stick for his performance, but we believe it’s been exaggerated.
Could he have got tighter to Sergio Aguero? Probably. But it was still a world-class finish from a world-class player. These things happen in big games.
Joe Gomez and Joel Matip will be back in a few weeks and will be able to compete with the Croat for a spot alongside van Dijk.
This strength in depth should keep us in a good position for the race.