Liverpool news: We were poor in the last third, says Virgil van Dijk on Leicester defeat

Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has conceded that Leicester City deserved to win 1-0 against them in the Premier League on Tuesday night. The Anfield side’s second defeat of the season came as a result of Ademola Lookman’s second-half goal. That lone strike proved decisive at King Power Stadium, where Mohamed Salah had a penalty saved in the first period. Liverpool still remain in second place in the table but now they trail the Premier League leaders Manchester City by six points at the halfway point of the season. In their hunt for the league title, this result would have been a massive blow for the Reds.

Asked whether Leicester deserved the win, Van Dijk told Amazon Prime, “I think they deserved the win, but it was obviously down to us. I think we were poor in the last third, in my opinion: a lot of crosses that they defended well. It was just overall not a good performance and obviously they didn’t create much, but they looked dangerous on the break, what they are obviously good at. So credit to them and we have to look at ourselves. Everyone has to look in the mirror and improve and that’s what we will do. That’s part of football as well.”

“We will keep trying until the very end and we created good chances in my opinion. Unfortunately today was not the day that it fell into the back of the net; a penalty missed, it can happen. It’s very disappointing for us but like I said, it’s part of football and we have to take this with us and be ready for a very big one on Sunday.”

Van Dijk: Leicester can be proud of their performance

Van Dijk was then asked whether the Reds should have defended better to prevent Lookman from scoring. He replied, “Obviously you don’t want to concede at all. I think he had a little bit too much space at first and we let him use his strength – he’s a good dribbler and unfortunately the goal went in. But still, we had moments that we reacted in, we created chances and should have done better but overall I think Leicester can be proud of their performance and you have to give them credit as well.”

Liverpool are six points off the pace at the top of the Premier League table at the midway point of the season. Speaking about the title race, the Dutchman said, “What can we say? We are in December, the season is still so long. Anything can happen still – we’ve seen it now with the COVID, but also with injuries in teams. Things can change there… there is no point for us to look at them [leaders Manchester City] or look at Chelsea or the teams around us at this point in the season and we won’t. We should look at our performance today, we have to improve and take it with us into the next game. We all wanted to do better today, that’s a fact, and unfortunately we weren’t good enough and they deserved the win.”