Virgil van Dijk demands response after ‘unacceptable’ season

Virgil van Dijk has been Liverpool captain since July 2023. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA.

Virgil van Dijk has demanded a “reaction” from Liverpool after last season’s lacklustre defence of their Premier League title.

Twelve months after leading the Reds to glory in his first campaign in charge, Arne Slot paid the price for a fifth-place finish, only guaranteeing a Champions League spot on the final day of last season.

New Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola started his reign with a 2-2 draw at Newcastle and while Van Dijk feels there will be an adjustment period under the Spaniard, it will not be an excuse to underperform again.

“It’s absolutely normal in any type of profession, work, whatever you do, if you come in new and you have new plans and new ideas, then it takes a bit of time with new players,” the Liverpool captain said.

“It’s down to us to do it as soon as we can, as soon as possible, because we want to improve, we want to win, we want to be better. That’s what we are going to try to do.

“We need to show a reaction from last year, that we are much better than last year, because this was very unacceptable.”

Any ambitions of hitting the ground running were dented at St James’ Park, where Liverpool were seconds away from defeat only for Dominik Szoboszlai’s penalty deep into stoppage time to rescue a point.

“It’s so early on in the season, I think if we start panicking regardless of what could have happened, then obviously you won’t be in a good place,” Van Dijk said.

“We work on the training ground a lot of hours and have a lot of discussions on the pitch about how we want to do it better and what we want to do and what the manager wants to see.

“Hopefully next week it will be very close to what he wants us to do. There were some good things in the game, but obviously also things that we have to improve.”

Alexander Isak was relentlessly jeered by Newcastle’s fans on his first return to Tyneside since his acrimonious departure last summer although Van Dijk doubted that contributed to the Swede’s anonymous display.

“He tried to play his game. I think he had good moments and some moments where obviously he could have done better, like all of us,” Van Dijk said. “I don’t think that affected him one bit.”

While Mohamed Salah was a high-profile departure this summer, Liverpool have bolstered their ranks by signing highly sought-after forward Victor Munoz and young centre-back Jeremy Jacquet.

Another defender, Ronald Araujo, has arrived on loan but Liverpool had a second bid of £60million turned down for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh as they look for wide players before the transfer window closes.

“Everyone wants to see quality arrive regardless and I fully trust the club and the board to make the right decisions,” Van Dijk added.

“That’s the only thing I can say, so let’s see what we are going to do.”