Virgil van Dijk has taken a subtle dig at Liverpool’s owners for their poor summer planning. The Reds have let go of plenty of players during the current transfer window including former skipper Jordan Henderson, ex-vice captain James Milner, Roberto Firminho and Fabinho.
Yet Liverpool have only managed to bring in two new signings; midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. There are serious concerns about the lack of depth in Jurgen Klopp’s side, particularly defensively.
During their final pre-season fixture against Darmstadt on Monday, Liverpool’s defence was caught sleeping as a simple ball over the top to Mathias Honsak allowed the Austrian clean through on goal to peg one back for the newly-promoted Bundesliga side. The same issues were prevalent throughout pre-season and the back end of last year.
Fans expressed their concerns online and urged the Liverpool board to turn its attention to recruiting defenders in order to shore up their leaky backline. Van Dijk admits he can understand why supporters might be apprehensive about the new season after a summer full of uncertainty but is confident the team will find its feet when it matters.
Speaking after the Darmstadt game, he said: “Yeah, I can definitely understand it in some ways. But I’m not a very negative person, so obviously it’s not in my mind to think like that. But obviously when a lot of players are leaving, when your captain is leaving, your vice-captain is leaving, and at the moment there are only two incomings.
“And the way we have been playing, in possession is really good, but defensively when you concede goals it’s not as good, so I can understand some people having doubts.
“But the most important thing as we’ve seen over the years is the consistency, as a group, everyone in the squad, let’s see if more players are coming in, and then we have to be ready again for a long season.
“It will be very tough if we look at the teams around us, but we want to be up there again, we want to be challenging again, and the only way to do it is with the consistency that we’ve shown over the previous years, apart from last year which was very disappointing.
“We have to be confident, we should be confident and we should still be learning each and every day. There have been characters leaving, players who have played a big part in the success, but others have to step up. That’s a nice challenge in my opinion. We should be excited. I’m very excited, so let’s give it a go.”