“Anything can happen” - Virgil van Dijk refuses to concede defeat in Premier League title race and admits Liverpool need to focus on themselves
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has revealed anything can happen in the title race after the Reds fell six points behind Manchester City.
Jürgen Klopp’s side created enough chances to beat Leicester City, but could not breach Kasper Schmeichel’s goal as Leicester won 1-0 at home. The Reds also missed a penalty in the first half and were denied by a couple of brilliant Schmeichel saves.
Victory at the King Power Stadium meant Leicester avenged their Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat against the Reds.
Virgil van Dijk acknowledged that the Reds' below-par performance meant they deserved to lose 1-0 at Leicester City on Tuesday night.
It was Liverpool’s second defeat this season and left them level on points with Chelsea in the league table. Van Dijk, however, tried to focus on the positives and said there were a lot of games left to close the gap on Manchester City:
“What can we say? We’re in December. The season is so, so long. Anything can happen. You have seen it with Covid and injuries – lots of things can change. There’s no point looking at [Manchester City] or Chelsea or the other teams around us.”
The Dutch centre-back added:
“We should look at our performance today and improve. We all wanted to do better. That’s a fact. We weren’t good enough and they deserved the win.”
Liverpool have an uphill task ahead of them
Although there are plenty of games left in the Premier League, Liverpool have a difficult few weeks coming up.
The Reds will be hamstrung by the departures of Naby Keita, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah in January. The trio are set to play in the African Cup of Nations for their respective national teams, making the Reds considerably weaker.
Jürgen Klopp rued a night when Liverpool were ‘just not really ourselves’ in defeat at Leicester. His reaction 👇
Klopp’s side are still active in four competitions as well, so rotating the squad will not be easy. Liverpool also tend to slow down around January and February so they can ill-afford to drop too far behind in the race for the title.
The Reds have some crucial games ahead as they travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea on 2 January. They will then face Arsenal in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup and hope to emerge victorious over two legs to reach the final.