Liverpool ‘quality’ will overcome slump, says Van Dijk

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said the English champions’ quality will eventually show if they stick together after a fourth consecutive Premier League defeat to Brentford on Saturday.

The Reds’ title defence has collapsed over the past month and they have slipped to sixth in the table. Leaders Arsenal could open a seven-point advantage over Arne Slot’s men on Sunday.

Liverpool were again exposed defensively by Brentford’s strength from set pieces and on the counter-attack in a 3-2 defeat in west London.

The Reds  have conceded two or more goals in six of their nine league games and are without a clean sheet in nine games.

“It’s difficult to say. The fact we didn’t keep a clean sheet for nine games,” said centre-back Van Dijk.

“It’s easy to blame a particular person, the backline or set-pieces, but it’s a collective thing in the end. Everyone has to look in the mirror, including myself.

“I am sure we will get out of this, but we won’t do it just by talking about it. We will try to improve. We need each other, we need the support, we need the people who were celebrating with us last year to be with us now even more.

“We will get out of this because we have the quality offensively and defensively.”

Slot, though, was concerned by what he regarded as the worst performance from his side in any of the defeats so far.

All three previous losses came via late goals scored by Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Manchester United.

“You cannot compare all of them but the most concerning thing is that you lose four times in a row,” said Slot.

“Afterwards you can judge the performance and today was the worst in my opinion from all the four.”