Wayne Rooney has admitted he is concerned about Virgil van Dijk’s comments regarding his team following Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest.
Arne Slot’s side suffered their sixth defeat of the season, which is already two more than their entire Premier League title-winning campaign last year.
Despite beating Aston Villa and Real Madrid earlier this month with clean sheets in both games, the Reds have now slipped to back-to-back defeats.
Liverpool have won just three of their last 11 matches in all competitions and sit 11th in the table. Club captain Van Dijk admitted after the game that his team “were just not good”, before listing a number of issues Liverpool are currently facing – something Rooney is concerned about.
Regarding Forest exploiting Liverpool’s weaknesses, Rooney told Match of the Day: “Yeah, they did, and I think that’s a concern when your captain is speaking like that about the players lacking fight and not winning second balls and winning the challenges.
“But if we look here at how Nottingham Forest prepared themselves against Liverpool… they allowed Liverpool to come onto them early on and they were sucking Liverpool into traps all afternoon.”
Liverpool controlled the majority of the game. Slot’s side had 74% possession and managed 21 shots to Forest’s 15. The Reds also completed over 400 more passes than their opponents.
However, crucially for Sean Dyche’s team, their shots found the back of the net. If Arsenal beat Tottenham this afternoon, Liverpool will be 11 points off the league leaders.
The important thing for Slot is that there is still plenty of time to recover their form. The Liverpool boss will be hoping his new signings, such as Alexander Isak, can find their feet soon.
Manchester City proved that even the top clubs are vulnerable, having lost to a struggling Newcastle United side. If Liverpool are to regroup and find wins, they’ll also need Arsenal and City to start slipping up with more regularity.
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