Virgil van Dijk, the captain of Liverpool, revealed to the reporters that he held a players’ meeting after their loss to arch-rivals Manchester United 2-1 in the Premier League at Anfield, to find themselves in third place in the standings as defending champions t his past Sunday. It was Liverpool’s first such defeat against Manchester United in nearly a decade in their home stadium, which also turned out to be the first time they suffered four straight losses in all competitions in more than 11 years.
Notably, Liverpool, under manager Arne Slot, are currently joint-third place in the Premier League standings alongside Bournemouth with (+3) goal difference, four points behind challengers Arsenal. On Wednesday, in the mid-week UEFA Champions League (UCL)
clash against Eintracht Frankfurt, Liverpool stopped the rut with a convincing 5-1 victory away at Deutsche Bank Park to jump into the top ten in the European tournament standings, sandwiched between Barcelona and Chelsea.
On Monday, everyone was sad because we lost to United at home: Virgil van Dijk
In his recent interview with the reporters, Virgil van Dijk described the environment at the club the next morning after losing to arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday. He was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “On Monday, everyone was sad because we lost to United at home. We haven't lost many games at home during my time at Liverpool.”
“It was tough under the circumstances so on Monday we came together, but it wasn't a crisis meeting. We all know how things can change. We're only in October. Obviously, we also had a proper debrief with the manager but we also had a separate one as players. I wanted to say some things. It's not something I do after every game. Let's keep it that way,” said Virgil van Dijk about holding a meeting with his teammates without the presence of Arne Slot.
Moreover, in a big decision from the Liverpool manager for last night’s UCL clash, star player Mohamed Salah was dropped from the starting line-up altogether, but despite that, they scored five goals in Germany.
