Virgil van Dijk is struggling to put his finger on Liverpool’s fall from grace, but believes they will overcome their current slump.
It’s now five defeats in the last six matches for the Reds – imagining that happening back in August seemed impossible.
Liverpool’s 3-2 loss at Brentford was again littered with problems, with the champions now conceding at least two goals in six of their nine Premier League games this season.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Van Dijk admitted he is struggling to pinpoint the Reds’ defensive woes, but also promised to overcome them in a frank post-match interview.
“It’s difficult to say [what is most concerning]. The fact is that we didn’t keep clean sheets for nine games,” Van Dijk said.
“It’s easy then to blame a particular person or the back line or set-pieces, but it’s a collective thing in the end as well. Everyone has to look in the mirror, including myself.
“That’s what we all do and that’s what we all have discussed as well. I’m sure we will get out of this, but we don’t get out of this just by talking about it.
“Obviously I have to come here because you guys ask me to come here, otherwise I would just focus on trying to get back on track with my team.
“We’ll try to improve, that’s what we work on; it’s not that we’re doing nothing in training or nothing behind the scenes.
“We all want to improve, that’s why we’re on the pitch as well. But it’s tough at the moment.
“We need each other, we need the support, we need the people that were celebrating with us as well last year to be there for us now even more, and then I’m very confident that we will get out of this because we have the quality offensively, defensively.
“But the reality is we are looking for a clean sheet but definitely for a win again. That’s the reality.”
The manner in which Liverpool have fallen off a cliff this season is hugely concerning, with a growing number of problems for Arne Slot to contend with.
New signings aren’t settling, key players are out of form – from Alexis Mac Allister to Mohamed Salah – and confidence is low.
Liverpool look a mess defensively, though, with even Van Dijk himself toiling of late, and you can’t win games and trophies playing in such a manner.
Arsenal have conceded just one shot on target in their last three matches, whereas the Reds look painfully easy to run through with 15 in their last three.
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