Liverpool have been below par this season and Virgil van Dijk was forced to respond to questions as to why this may be the case following our draw with Brighton.
Speaking with the club’s website, the 31-year-old was asked if there was a hangover from the last campaign and said: “No, no, not at all, there is no hangover from that. Teams obviously are getting better, we play in the best league in the world where all the teams are able to compete with each other.
“We have to get back to that consistency and play with joy and freedom but it all starts with doing it together and working hard.”
It’s easy to say that, because we’ve never had a season when Jurgen Klopp’s side hasn’t had something to fight for on the final day of the campaign, so the team must be fatigued from these efforts.
There is no doubt an element of truth about these comments too but it seems unlikely this would all cause such a drop in performances in this season.
The Dutchman in our defence has been such a big reason for our past successes and he will be holding himself responsible for this recent run of poor results.
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Our No.4 is a leader within the dressing room too and with so many issues occurring in our defence, he will be holding himself responsible for the leaky defensive problems.
There certainly hasn’t been enough joy this season either and the Reds have a duty to perform and entertain, something that we have become so used to seeing.
There’s a long time to go in this season and so we can turn a corner together. Let’s hope it starts with a win over Rangers.