Virgil van Dijk has issued a fighting message as Liverpool look to heed their slump, with Arne Slot under mounting pressure at Anfield to start getting the best out of his players once again
Stephen Killen Senior Football Writer
21:01, 27 Nov 2025Updated 21:28, 27 Nov 2025
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk says they will keep fighting. (Image: SmartFrame/Pro Sports Images)
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has called for unity and insists they will bounce back from their poor form. The central defender reaffirmed the Reds will not give up as they look to overturn a run of nine defeats in their last 12 matches.
Arne Slot is facing growing calls to be dismissed by the Anfield hierarchy with their Premier League title defence in tatters after a series of dire results. The Dutch tactician has failed to arrest Liverpool’s staggering decline this season and in their last three matches, against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven, they have shipped 10 goals.
Liverpool slipped out of the automatic qualification places in the Champions League after Wednesday’s 4-1 defeat to PSV at Anfield. In the English top-flight, they sit in the bottom half of the table, three points off the top four and 11 adrift of league leaders Arsenal.
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The Reds’ struggles have been laid bare and pressure is mounting on Jurgen Klopp’s successor. Van Dijk admits that the team are in their “toughest” period but insists they won’t go down without a fight.
Posting to Instagram ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Ham, Van Dijk wrote: “We’re facing one of the toughest moments of our journey, but we refuse to let this define us. We will rise from this. I believe in this team with everything I have.
“Nothing has ever been handed to us – we’ve fought for everything, and this moment is no different.
“We won’t give in. Won’t give up. Every challenge is an opportunity. We must grow together, lift each other up, and show the strength that lies within us.
“To the fans, keep supporting us. We all need each other more than ever!”
Virgil van Dijk issued a passionate response to Liverpool’s slump(Image: virgilvandijk/Instagram)
The response from Van Dijk comes following accusations that Slot has lost the dressing room, a matter of months after guiding Liverpool to their second Premier League crown in 30 years.
Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher questioned whether some of the Liverpool players could perform for the 20-time champions. The 47-year-old deflected some of the blame from the Liverpool head coach, later admitting that the Dutchman has a week to save his job, by criticising the Reds.
The criticism comes amid struggles for Slot’s three key performers, Mohamed Salah, Alisson Becker, with his involvement hampered by injury, and Van Dijk.
“I’m angry with the players, if I’m being totally honest. I’m really angry with the players,” Carragher said. “But it does get to a stage with any manager at any club where I always use this word – untenable – where it can’t go on any longer.
“I’m not there personally in terms of the manager but I know a lot of the supporters will be.”
Carragher added: “Van Dijk now can’t help other players. He needs help himself. And that just means he’s a normal centre-back, like I was at one stage. Maybe he’s not super-human right now.
“But they’ve been that good for the football club… I look at some of the others – step up. Can you only play well when they play well, or when they carry you?
Mohamed Salah has struggled to replicate the form that fired Liverpool to the Premier League title last season(Image: Getty Images)
“Their (Van Dijk and Salah) season last season was off the scale and everybody else enjoyed that by winning the league and they are all league champions and have that on their CV.
“But when they (Van Dijk and Salah) are not there, where are the other players? That’s why I get angry about when you talk about the manager – although that’s inevitable and something could happen – but in terms of the players and the way they are performing now, that is not acceptable for Liverpool Football Club.
“I maybe thought this last season, but are some of them good enough if Liverpool want to win the biggest trophies? We saw them against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, we saw them against PSG away from home last season, woeful performances and they’ve been carried by some of the greatest players the club has ever had.
“This is maybe a snapshot of the future of Liverpool when Mo Salah moves on, when Virgil van Dijk moves on and when Alisson moves on.”