No panic but Liverpool have to improve, says Virgil van Dijk

ISTANBUL – Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk called for improvement and an end to silly errors, after his side went down 1-0 at Galatasaray in the Champions League on Sept 30 and suffered the loss of goalkeeper Alisson Becker to injury.

The defeat was the Reds’ second in a row after the Premier League leaders lost their 100 per cent record at Crystal Palace on Sept 27.

“I hate losing. There shouldn’t be panic, but there should be definitely improvement needed,” the Dutch centre-back said on Amazon Prime.

“I think it was a big step up in terms of the willingness, the hard work that we put in from the weekend, but that was not really too difficult because the weekend was just bad.

“We have to convert chances, don’t give a penalty away today and don’t make stupid mistakes at times. It’s far too easy to say these things than to actually make it happen but it’s a process and we have to keep going.

“Keep working, stick together and on to the next one. That’s the only thing we can focus on.”

Liverpool lost out to an early penalty, slotted home by Victor Osimhen, in a game played in an intimidating cauldron of a stadium after fireworks had been let off outside the team hotel overnight.

The win was a first in seven years at home in the Champions League proper for the Turkish side and a notable one against opponents unbeaten in all competitions this season until last weekend.

Manager Arne Slot said he was disappointed but noted that the performance was still a lot better than on Sept 27, and it all came down to fine margins, with the team not so far off last season’s level.

“We’ve lost now twice in a row, this is something with the schedule coming as well. Galatasaray away is not an easy game, the same like Palace, and now we play Chelsea away, so difficult games,” he explained.

“I saw a lot of things. First half, the way we played, the way we controlled the game, the amount of times we got our attackers in promising positions.

“In the second half, that was much less. But I don’t think in the second half there was a lot of playing time. Their striker was four or five times on the floor, substitutions, injuries.”

Alisson’s loss, with the goalkeeper ruled out of the Oct 4 game at Chelsea, is a big one and Liverpool also had Hugo Ekitike go off injured.

“It’s never positive if you go off like this. You can be sure he’s not playing on Saturday and let’s wait how long it’s going to take,” Slot said of Alisson, who made key saves but could not keep out Osimhen’s 16th-minute penalty.

The masked Nigerian striker stepped up after Baris Alper Yilmaz went down after being swiped in the face by Dominik Szoboszlai.

With record signing Alexander Isak still not up to match fitness, but coming on as a second-half substitute along with Mohamed Salah, and some new players yet to gel, Liverpool can ill afford to lose a scoring talent like Ekitike.

Salah’s form is also a concern, with the Egyptian last starting a Champions League game on the bench three years ago and making little impact when he came on.
REUTERS