Following [Liverpool](https://liverpooloffside.sbnation.com/)’s 3-3 draw with [Newcastle](https://cominghomenewcastle.sbnation.com) on Wednesday in the Premier League, plenty of people were quick to fall back on the fact that for long stretches of the match the Reds would have counted themselves fortunate to take a point home with them.
The reality, though, was that as the game played out, Liverpool were up a goal before they gifted Newcastle an equalizer on 90 minutes. The reality is that no matter what had come before that point, in the end it was two dropped points and not one earned.
At least that’s how star centre half and captain Virgil van Dijk sees it. If you’d offered a draw after a dire first half that saw the Reds head to the break down it might have seemed a good result, but that simply wasn’t how things stood near the end of another half.
“I think everyone was disappointed,” Van Dijk noted of the mood around the dressing room after the final whistle on Wednesday evening. “It was 100% two points lost. To concede in the last couple of minutes, and the way that we conceded, was disappointing.”
While disappointing, nobody should get carried away at a draw. Liverpool are still seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table. And the fact they clawed back and were the better side after a poor first half showing is equally important to focus on.
“I had a few things to say,” Van Dijk said of what happened at the half to turn the game around for Liverpool. “We all know how it works in football, that you still have time to turn it around after a half down 1-0 but you still have to do so many things differently.
“You can talk tactics but it begins with winning battles, winning duels, winning challenges and second balls, putting them under pressure. In the second half we had 50 minutes to put it right which we did but unfortunately we then couldn’t get it over the line.”