Nottingham Forest's completely deserved victory at Anfield has sunk Liverpool into a comprehensive crisis. Forest are an encroachment, causing Liverpool to suffer their sixth defeat in their last seven Premier League games.
Arne Slot and Virgil van Dijk stepped into the camera, together taking responsibility for the 0-3 defeat to a team that had never won away from home in the entire season. The first person to speak was Van Dijk.
"Everyone in the team is responsible. Football is a team sport, and we all have to stand up and admit our mistakes. We have to accept this reality and face it. We need to work harder, continue to move forward and not give up" - the Liverpool captain shared.
Then it was Arne Slot's turn to speak up: "Whether it's good or bad, the responsibility is entirely mine. We couldn't create enough chances, and the adjustments I tried to make were not effective.
We couldn't score. At this stadium, no one can predict anything. If you score, everything will be fine, if not, everything will be difficult."
The Liverpool head coach admitted that he has not done a good job in squad selection, tactical implementation and substitution decisions in recent matches.
Meanwhile, Van Dijk believes that the players simply do not meet the requirements on the field, emphasizing that the responsibility belongs to the entire team and that more efforts are needed to improve the results.
The truth is always in the middle. Van Dijk will never blame the coach, but it is clear that Slot deserves to bear most of the responsibility for Liverpool's disastrous title defense. The Dutch captain contributed to the summer transfer decisions and he was the one who built the squad and the approach for each match.
Slot was the one who decided to include Alexander Isak in the starting lineup to replace Hugo Ekitike. He was also the one who continued to push Dominik Szoboszlai - Liverpool's most dynamic midfielder - to play as a right-back, instead of trusting Joe Gomez to replace Conor Bradley with an injury. In addition, Slot also chose Milos Kerkez to replace Andy Robertson on the left wing.
But many of Van Dijk's criticisms are well-founded. He complained that The Kop made basic mistakes, when Forest were "physiologically superior" and the players did not work together as a whole to regain the ball. The Dutch midfielder also realized that he and Konate were facing many difficulties.
Both sides have lessons to learn. If Slot still wants to keep Isak - which is understandable when he is worth £ 125 million - he needs to find a way to exploit the Swedish player's potential. At the same time, Slot also needs to let Mohamed Salah participate more in the team's play.
On the other hand, perhaps Van Dijk needs to lead another team meeting, like the meeting held a month ago after a 1-2 defeat to Manchester United. As he shared: "We have overcome difficulties and won the championship together, everyone is a part of that and we are happy. When going through a difficult time, you have to unite and not blame each other".
Now, Liverpool need to unite and deal with all internal problems, because with a tight schedule, things will not be simple.
