Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk damned the team’s Merseyside derby surrender as ‘unacceptable’ and says they cannot think about winning the Premier League anymore.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are not out of the race after the 2-0 loss to Everton, but they need a series of calamitous results for Manchester City and Arsenal having been outfought, outthought and outplayed at Goodison Park.
“Game likes these, the bare minimum is fight,” said Van Dijk.
“We were lacking that at so many moments in games; small challenges, some passes that were not clear so we came into challenges that they win and they get momentum out of it.
“We have to look in the mirror and each and every one of us has to think like, ‘listen, you can’t accept this’. You can’t accept the way we let our season end. If you play like we did you don’t deserve to win the league.
“You have to do much more than that. If we play like today and let it slip like today then you shouldn’t even think about it.”
Liverpool looked jaded and bereft of confidence, but Van Dijk said he is uninterested in excuses. Asked if the players were running on empty, he replied: “I don’t think so. Obviously it’s a mix of everything. You can’t put a finger on it. it’s confidence, inexperience, challenges, maybe afraid to make mistakes in this part of the season. I don’t know. It’s a mix but it brings us to the situation where we can’t accept this.
“As everyone at the start of the season would say, no one put us even close to where we are right now. We kept doing our thing, playing games, finding ways to win, even with red cards, even with last-minute winners. We kept doing that and that’s our big credit. But now it’s crunch time and we’ve not been good enough in the way we finished the chances off, in the way we defended together and also the fight. I think we have to show much more.
“Everyone has to look in the mirror and we can’t let the season end like this.”
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