Virgil van Dijk did not hold back in his assessment of Liverpool, echoing the sentiment of Arne Slot last year after a teammate made embarrassing history.<\/p>\n
Liverpool<\/strong><\/a> were thrashed 3-0 by Nottingham Forest at Anfield as they slipped into the bottom half of the Premier League table<\/strong><\/a> in an increasingly troubled defence of their title.<\/p>\n The Opta Joe X timeline<\/a>\u00a0has become something of a goldmine, with such nuggets as this being the first time\u00a0Liverpool have lost back-to-back league games by a margin of at least three goals since 1965, and them being only the fourth defending champions in Premier League history to lose at least half of their first 12 games.<\/p>\n Van Dijk was once more entirely powerless to prevent Liverpool being turned over yet again \u2013 only Burnley, West Ham and Wolves have conceded more league goals so far this season \u2013 and he accepted that the Reds have a \u201cproblem\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe concede too many easy goals,\u201d Van Dijk told Premier League Productions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey scored obviously from a set piece again. You can ask if he was in front of Alisson, but it counted, so we\u2019re 1-0 down.\u201d<\/p>\n That was a nod to Murillo\u2019s opener, the centre-half\u2019s finish from ten yards out after a corner having left Alisson stranded with the offside Dan Ndoye stood in front of him.<\/p>\n It was, however, decided that Ndoye had not obscured the Liverpool goalkeeper\u2019s view in a call which might nevertheless have infuriated the Reds after Van Dijk had a potential equaliser against Manchester City disallowed<\/strong><\/a> before the international break in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not good in terms of battles, challenges, the fight, too rushed,\u201d Van Dijk continued.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult situation at the moment. There was nervousness after we conceded, but not before. We tried to rush things and that\u2019s human when you\u2019re in a difficult moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cleared the ones before and in the end, we\u2019re in a very difficult moment. We don\u2019t get out of it by just speaking about it. It will take a lot of hard work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a problem. Everyone in the team has to take responsibility as well. Football is a team and everyone has to take responsibility. We have to digest this and take it on the chin. We need to work harder. We have to keep going.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is disappointed, like they should be, because losing at home to Nottingham Forest is, in my eyes, very bad. That\u2019s the least I can say about it.\u201d<\/p>\n That sounds an awful lot like September 2024 Arne Slot<\/strong><\/a>, doesn\u2019t it? Perhaps they should simply stop losing at home to Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n \u201cThose goals we conceded are far too easy and we all have to look in the mirror. I\u2019ve been at this club so long now and we\u2019ve been through adversity. We will bounce back but it doesn\u2019t happen overnight. I\u2019m not a quitter and we will keep going.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t decide what the supporters are doing if they leave early. I know the fans have been through thick and thin with us. They will be there with us when we come out of this because we will come out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n