Virgil van Dijk mentality laid bare as he rues one match Liverpool ‘could and should have won’ | OneFootball

Liverpool might be excelling in numerous competitions this season, but Virgil van Dijk has voiced regret over one match that he believes the Reds ‘should have won’.

Arne Slot’s team have only dropped points in six of their 21 Premier League matches thus far, most recently in the 1-1 draw away to Nottingham Forest last Tuesday.

Although the visitors came from behind to rescue a point at the City Ground against a team who’ve been in excellent form under Nuno Espirito Santo, there was a sense of frustration at failing to get the win, having dominated the shot count (23-6), xG (1.99-0.31) and possession stakes (71%-29%), as per Sofascore.

Van Dijk rueful over Forest draw

In his matchday programme notes for tonight’s Champions League clash against Lille, Van Dijk reflected on a dramatic week which saw Liverpool follow up the draw against Forest with a last-gasp victory away to Brentford.

The captain wrote (via liverpoolfc.com): “Reflecting on the games against Nottingham Forest and Brentford, I think we can take a lot of positives, both in terms of the results and the performances we put in.

“Those are two really tough places to go, so to take four points from a possible six is a good effort, even if we came away from Forest believing we could and should have won.”

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

A decent point to earn, but not what Liverpool came for

A share of the spoils away to a Forest side occupying third place in the Premier League and who’d been on a run of seven wins in a row across all competitions is no disgrace, but it speaks to the mentality of Van Dijk and this Liverpool team that they weren’t content with taking a point from the City Ground.

It took several high-quality saves from Matz Sels to prevent the Garibaldi from losing, and the result left Slot’s side with only three wins from seven top-flight matches, a blip which had enabled the chasing pack to chip away at their lead at the top of the table.

However, whereas the Reds weren’t rewarded for their dominance in Nottingham, they were for the persistence they showed against Brentford four days later, when Darwin Nunez turned one point into three with his stoppage-time brace.

Van Dijk has enough experience of title challenges to know that Liverpool will likely face a few more of those moments between now and the end of the season, with an upcoming trip to improbable Champions League chasers Bournemouth bearing all the hallmarks of a fixture in which victory would be very much hard-earned.

With a six-point lead at the summit and a game in hand on their closest challengers, at least the Reds have margin for error in the title race, but they’ll be striving to avoid repeats of the frustrating visit to the Midlands last week.