Van Dijk says Liverpool need to sign another forward after Wembley woe

Virgil van Dijk has appeared to difficulty a telling message to FSG after Liverpool have been crushed on penalties within the Group Protect on Sunday.

It’s the second time in 5 months that the Reds have tasted disappointment at Wembley, having additionally misplaced the Carabao Cup remaining to Newcastle in March, and the Premier League champions twice surrendered a result in Crystal Palace this afternoon.

Debut targets for Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong weren’t sufficient to safe the primary silverware of the brand new season for Arne Slot’s facet, and their captain didn’t maintain again with a few of his post-match assessments.

Van Dijk requires additional switch exercise

Alex Criminal of talkSPORT spoke with Van Dijk shortly after the ultimate whistle, claiming that the Liverpool defender feels the addition of one other ahead this month is a should after the gross sales of Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz.

The reporter posted on X: “Virgil van Dijk very open with me on talkSPORT: ‘I hate shedding and I’ve misplaced my final two video games at Wembley’. Bemoaned defensive errors though mentioned he ‘wasn’t frightened’ shifting ahead. Stated after shedding Nunez and Diaz they want one other ahead. Gave the impression of a ‘go get Isak’ plea.”

Will Van Dijk’s pleas be heeded by FSG this month?

The captain’s evaluation seems to be at odds with that of Slot after the match, with the Reds’ head coach telling TNT Sports activities that his group’s attacking play was ‘higher’ at this time than it had been in opposition to the identical opposition final season.

As per BBC, Palace had extra pictures than the Merseysiders at Wembley (14 to 12) however the defeated facet had extra on track (5 to 4). Nonetheless, Ekitike will really feel that he should have finished higher with two possibilities early within the second half, whereas Mo Salah endured an ‘nameless‘ show which was method under his typical requirements.

The Eagles have been a match for Liverpool throughout the 90 minutes of regular time and had a very dominant spell within the second half earlier than equalising, with Van Dijk sadly culpable for giving freely the first-half penalty that Jean-Philippe Mateta transformed.

Whereas the Reds might do with including one other ahead this month after promoting Nunez and Diaz (and shedding Diogo Jota in tragic circumstances in July), the largest switch precedence for August should certainly be a brand new centre-back, with LFC worryingly gentle for numbers in that place.

The concession of two targets and some extra possibilities at Wembley at this time serves to underline the necessity for defensive enchancment from Slot’s facet in the event that they’re to retain their Premier League title. Van Dijk didn’t have his finest afternoon within the Group Protect, however hopefully it was merely a uncommon off-day from the skipper.