Virgil van Dijk has acknowledged Liverpool must improve defensively to retain the Premier League title and backed the club to bring in more reinforcements before the end of the transfer window.
The Netherlands defender revealed after Sunday’s Community Shield that he had spent the previous five days in bed with a virus. Van Dijk was culpable for Palace’s first equaliser in the 2-2 draw when he brought down Ismaïla Sarr for a penalty and Liverpool’s defence struggled to contain the Senegal forward, who scored his team’s second to take the game to a shootout won by Palace.
Aside from a 5-0 win against Stoke last month behind closed doors, Liverpool have conceded in all of their pre-season matches and their captain admitted that must be resolved before the opening league fixture at home to Bournemouth on Friday night.
“If it was that simple, I would have told you immediately and we would have fixed it,” Van Dijk said. “But it’s a combination. You defend as a team, you press as a team.
“I don’t know how many chances we give away [against Palace], but I think there’s still maybe a handful in total. But the fact is that we conceded every game, apart from Stoke. That’s something we have to work on.
“I’m not worried whatsoever, because there’s also a reason why we’re very defensively good last year. We have to get back to it.”
Ryan Gravenberch missed the Community Shield because his partner gave birth on Saturday night and is suspended for the Bournemouth game after being sent off against Palace on the final day of last season. Curtis Jones dropped into the Dutchman’s usual position in central midfield on Sunday and could retain his place, along with the new full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. Liverpool are interested in signing Marc Guéhi, but have yet to match Palace’s £40m valuation for their captain, who has entered the final year of his contract.
Despite an impressive performance from Hugo Ekitike against Palace, Liverpool are also expected to make another attempt to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle after selling Darwin Núñez to Al-Hilal last week. Liverpool have also sold Luis Díaz to Bayern Munich and the Portugal forward Diogo Jota died in a car crash last month. They have spent nearly £300m on players.
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“I’m fully trusting the club to do the right thing,” Van Dijk said. “What they think is good for the club, we’ll see in the next couple of weeks.”
Liverpool’s ended their last title defence, under Jürgen Klopp in 2020-21, third, 17 points behind the champions, Manchester City. “It was quite tough the year after we won it,” Van Dijk said. “We have to put it in our minds that whatever happened last season, happened last season.
“As a team, as a club, it was always going to be a tough season, especially with everything that happened over the summer as well. But the only way to overcome this is to do it together as a collective.”
