Virgil van Dijk has apologised to Liverpool fans for a torrid display at Manchester City and says the team are letting down under-fire boss Arne Slot.
The Reds were thrashed 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium in the FA Cup quarter-final on Saturday and plenty of the 7,600 travelling supporters were long gone by full-time.
Captain Van Dijk says this season has been extremely tough – but the Dutchman has vowed to do all he can to put it right ahead of a defining Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain.
‘I’ve been repeating myself too many times,’ he said. ‘Obviously, it goes out in the media because obviously I’m here all the time.
‘We let our fans down today. We let ourselves down and the manager, but we let our fans down today.
Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool were sent crashing out of the FA Cup at the hands of Man City
‘Up until the penalty, maybe not… but the way we played especially in the second half. That must hurt for everyone. It definitely hurts me. So the focus is now on Paris away, but it’s tough. It will be a tough Sunday to digest it.
‘I’ll be with my son (on Sunday), so that’s at least a good thing. Family at the end of the day is the most important thing, but other than that I am trying to think how we can turn it around but we have been going through this for almost 75 per cent of the season.
‘Where we do well but we can’t build on certain things and we fall back into games where we get beat on intensity or beat on how much you really want to go for it.
‘It is a difficult one to take and everyone has to look at themselves. I am speaking for myself but it is mentally tough at the moment to take this.’
Van Dijk added: ‘Obviously you come out of the dressing room with the right intentions to score and make it 2-1 and change the game, but the opposite happened and then to come back from 3-0 is obviously very difficult here. But also you shouldn’t give up, and that’s maybe what happened at a certain point.
‘It is very difficult. Very difficult. But we have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but especially to the fans and, if we want to make something out of this season, we have to try and do something special in the next three games.’
Asked if the squad were still behind boss Slot, he said: ‘Well, it’s a together thing, isn’t it? Obviously, he’s responsible as the manager, but we are the ones on the pitch that have to do it.
‘So, yeah, we… The matter of fact is now PSG is waiting for us. I watched them yesterday a little bit, and it will be so tough again. So we have to be ready mentally as soon as possible.
‘I’ve been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years and the main thing always was the togetherness.
‘Now, obviously, we are in a little bit of a transition so we have to find it. It’s still difficult to then perform each and every three days if we don’t have it consistently if you know what I mean. The togetherness on the pitch to show it for 90 plus minutes every three or four days.
‘That is difficult.’
