Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk delivered a blunt warning following his team’s 3-2 defeat at the hands of Fulham on Sunday. The Dutch defender emphasized that “there is still a lot of work to be done” after the Reds suffered their first away league loss of the season.
Despite taking the lead through Alexis Mac Allister’s exceptional strike, Arne Slot’s team conceded three goals to Fulham in the first half. The loss meant that Liverpool failed to capitalize on Arsenal’s draw against Everton, but there is still an 11-point cushion at the top of the Premier League.
On social media, Van Dijk shared a candid assessment, stating on Instagram: “A lot of work still to do, as we all saw. Thanks to all of you travelling [red heart emoji]. On to Sunday.”
Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi, and Rodrigo Muniz scored three goals within 14 minutes, shifting the momentum in favor of the hosts and leaving Liverpool with a challenging task.
The introduction of Luis Diaz proved to be a tactical success, as he reduced the deficit with 18 minutes remaining. Harvey Elliott came close to scoring with a left-footed shot that struck the bar.
Liverpool is set to return to Anfield on Sunday to face West Ham United (2pm kick-off). And should Arsenal defeat Brentford at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm kick-off), Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table could be reduced to eight points.
“No, there’s no reason for us to be complacent,” Slot stated. “We’re not No.1 in the league because we win every game by a margin of three or four goals. It takes us so much effort, so much hard work combined with quality for us to win games.
(Image: Photo by Harry Murphy – Danehouse/Getty Images)
“The team that won the league for the past four seasons was already 3-0 at half-time in almost every game they played. That’s not the way it is for us. We are fully aware of the fact we need to compete for seven more games.
“On Wednesday when we played Everton, it was a close call. Today was a close call. Many times we have been on the right side; today we were on the wrong side mainly because of the errors we played.
“I don’t think the errors we made were anything to do with tired. I can see it now that everyone looks back and says: ‘Wow, that first half was a disaster’.
“But if you look back, you will see some good moments as well because there were some good moments as well. Even at 1-1, I looked and thought: ‘OK, it’s not our best game but we’re on control.’ But then all of a sudden I blinked my eyes and we were 3-1 down.”
Liverpool.com says: Van Dijk has been consistent in his stance that the Reds need to keep going until the job is done but there is no reason to think that it won’t still happen. Arsenal is too far behind and won’t be perfect before the season ends, as its draw with Everton at Goodison Park showed. For Liverpool, it’s a matter of when, not if.
