Van Dijk agrees with Slot; absence of one midfielder hurt Liverpool against Chelsea | OneFootball

Liverpool are the Premier League champions and every game for the rest of the season means nothing but Virgil van Dijk still wants to win.

Asked by Sky Sports (via liverpoolfc.com), our captain shared his thoughts on the performance:

“I think the possession was quite good, but I think when we didn’t have the ball the pressing was not great and they could find the free man between the lines.

“Obviously to concede that early is not great, but we know that if we start playing the way we want to play and defend better that we create chances.

“There were chances for us as well to score. But I think in the end maybe they deserved the win and that’s a disappointing thing because we came here to win and we came here to keep playing the way we’re playing.

“Obviously we tried, but it wasn’t great.”

After a season of monumental efforts, we can all afford the players a game off after clinching the league title a week earlier.

However, they will all now want to ensure the season ends on a high and the absence of one man may have had a great impact on how we played.

The reference to the pressing not being great, collaborates with Arne Slot’s comments on Dominik Szoboszlai after the game too.

Van Dijk missed Dominik Szoboszlai in the Liverpool midfield

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

We could see from the celebration of our skipper after his goal that the full effort wasn’t in place to try and win the game at Stamford Bridge.

But with both captain and head coach highlighting a lack of intensity in the pressing, it’s good news for our No.8 whose presence was clearly missed.

When we face Arsenal next weekend, it means it’s likely we’ll see both the Hungarian and a more champions-esque mindset from the players.

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