Virgil van Dijk has admitted Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest was a “reality check”.
The Reds had enjoyed a perfect start to life under new manager Arne Slot, but crashed to Earth after the international break as Callum Hudson-Odoi inflicted the first defeat of the Dutchman’s new era.
A thoroughly impressed Van Dijk warned his teammates that such a dismal performance cannot be repeated going forward.
“First of all, it was a very disappointing day,” reflected Van Dijk. “The result, and also most of the performance, was too rushed and we lost too many second balls.
“We know how direct they are so playing against a big striker sometimes you can lose a challenge and you have to be ready for the second ball and every time there was a second ball they were on the right side.
“They stepped up to win the right challenges and did the job really well and we weren’t good enough ourselves. That’s the disappointing point.
“It’s hard for me to say (if the international break hasn’t helped). Everyone is coming back from different places and playing in a different way, but I still think that even today, when we weren’t at our best, we created chances and should have done better.
“But it’s a performance we’re definitely not happy with, we expect a lot better from ourselves and losing at home is something that can’t happen. We’ve got to turn it around pretty quickly and that’s going to be the focus.
“We still tried, but I think we were too hasty, put the ball in the box a little too quickly or overshot it and then you don’t have the momentum you want.
“Overall it was a disappointing afternoon, something we didn’t want to happen, but we have to turn it around and make this a bit of a reality check to be better for the rest of the season because if you want achieve things this season, The contrast between the games we played is too great.”
Liverpool They will now look to respond when they begin their Champions League campaign against AC Milan on Tuesday.
“Obviously everyone is disappointed, as we all should be, but we also remember that Tuesday is another big game,” Van Dijk stressed.
“If you want to dwell on things, it’s only going to backfire on you. We should all be disappointed, but in a couple of hours we’ll be thinking about recovery and being ready for Tuesday. That’s how we live our lives and that’s what we have to do, but the disappointment is still there.”
