Former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol. Picture: ESPN/ YouTubeplaceholder image
Former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol. Picture: ESPN/ YouTube | Former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol. Picture: ESPN/ YouTube
Liverpool suffered a 3-2 loss against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Steve Nicol slammed Virgil van Dijk's performance as the worst of his Liverpool career in the loss to AFC Bournemouth.
The Reds' lacklustre Premier League form continued as they conceded their latest late goal to slump to a 3-2 defeat. Arne Slot’s side have not won their past five league games and their 13-match unbeaten run was ended when Amine Adli scored in the 95th minute at the Vitality Stadium.
Bournemouth were two goals ahead after 33 minutes, with Liverpool captain Van Dijk at fault for both. The Netherlands international mistimed clearance led to Evanilson breaking the deadlock before he played Ryan Jimenez onside.
While Van Dijk did reduce the arrears with a header before half-time and Dominik Szoboszlai netted his latest free-kick with 10 minutes remaining, Liverpool’s vulnerability at defending set-pieces was again exposed. A long throw was not dealt with and Adli bundled home with virtually the last kick of the game.
What’s been said
Speaking on ESPN, Nicol reckons than Van Dijk was to blame for each of the Cherries’ goals. But the former Liverpool full-back pointed the finger at the front three of Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz for doing nowhere near enough in the game.
Nicol, who won four English titles and the European Cup with the Reds, said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Van Dijk have a worse game in a Liverpool jersey. He was involved in all three of the goals.
“Anybody playing against Liverpool, all they need to do is put the ball in the box and it’s chaos because nobody’s in charge. The goalkeeper’s not in charge, Van Dijk’s not in charge, nobody trusts each other, everybody’s wondering where to be. It’s just chaos. So you end up losing a goal like they did at the end because no-one takes charge.
“At the same time, you’ve got to look at the forward line because Mo Salah was awful. Gakpo did nothing and Florian Wirtz must have passed the ball to a Bournemouth player more than he did to a Liverpool player. When you have got so much of the ball, and you’ve got to look at Liverpool’s midfield because they gave the front three the ball as much of the ball they possibly could have wished for, and they did nothing with it.
“There was not one opportunity in this game that Liverpool created from open play where you’re saying they should have scored or hit the target. There was nothing. The goals came from set-pieces. The only positive is the middle of the park gave the front players plenty of the ball and they didn’t do their job.
“[Slot’s] excuse [of tiredness] doesn’t excuse the mistakes that particularly Van Dijk made today. If you’re going to be called a world-class centre-back, you can’t make those types of mistakes, whether you’re tired or not. And if you are tired, then what you do is you do the basics well, you don’t do anything fancy, you try and cut your running down to save your energy, you use your brain because the guy’s clearly got one, we’ve seen it over the last seven or eight years. But he was off it, his worst game for Liverpool no question.”
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