Image Credits: Imago Images
Virgil van Dijk feels that there is lots of work for the club to do to not repeat the turbulent 2025/26 season.
The defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday summed up the Reds this season, often starting games poorly and being simply too easy to play through.
Much of the blame has been pointed at a combination of a relentless injury list and a squad that simply never gelled after a summer spending spree of over £300 million.
Van Dijk has been one of the more vocal voices from the dressing room this season, saying that questions about the leadership group (Alisson, Robertson, and Salah) being “ripped apart” need to be directed at the “guys higher up”.
Now the Liverpool skipper has sent another pointed message to the Liverpool chiefs.
Speaking after the defeat to Manchester United, van Dijk has urged the club to make the necessary moves behind the scenes to ensure that the club performs better in 2026/27:
“It has been ups and downs,” van Dijk said as quoted by the Times. “Some wins have felt good. Winning feels good. But we can’t build on that and it has been the story of our season. ”
“That is what is difficult. Just to go up and down in your emotions is never a good thing. When you win, it’s happy days. When you lose, it is bad and you are held accountable. You have to take responsibility. It’s just life. ”
“I think it’s unacceptable that we have lost too many times as defending champions of the Premier League and we shouldn’t accept it whatsoever. There will be a lot of work that has to be done going into next season.”
“When I am back from the World Cup, I will go back into it. But there is still a lot of work to be done behind the scenes.”
Those are not the words of a player ready to accept mediocrity. Van Dijk knows, perhaps better than most, that the standards set during Liverpool’s title-winning campaign last season cannot simply be written off as a one-off peak – they should be the foundation, not the ceiling.
If van Dijk’s tone is anything to go by, those inside the club are under no illusions about what is required.