Van Dijk accuses Liverpool of giving up
Virgil van Dijk accused Liverpool of giving up as it whimpered out of the FA Cup after a 4-0 thrashing by Manchester City in the quarter-finals.
Van Dijk's trip on Nico O'Reilly inside the penalty area allowed Erling Haaland to open the scoring from 12 yards at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
He has now given away four penalties in all competitions this season, more than any other player from Europe's top five leagues, and it didn't get much better for the Reds afterwards.
City doubled its lead before half-time through Haaland, then the Norwegian completed his hat-trick in the 57th minute, after Antoine Semenyo had netted the hosts' third.
Liverpool has now lost 15 matches across all competitions this season, its most defeats in a single season since 2014-2015, when it lost 18 under Brendan Rodgers.
Dominik Szoboszlai questioned his team's mentality after full-time, while also showing frustration towards the away end after the match, with many of the travelling supporters leaving well before the final whistle as the pressure intensified further on manager Arne Slot.
"I can only apologise to the fans for what we have shown, especially the second half," Van Dijk said.
"Obviously, you come out with the right intentions from the dressing room, to hopefully score for 2-1 as soon as possible to change the game.
"The opposite happens and to come back from 3-0 is obviously very difficult here – but also you shouldn't give up and that's maybe, at a certain point, what happened.
"We let our fans down, we let ourselves down, and the manager. The way we played in the second half, especially, must hurt everyone. It definitely hurts me."
Liverpool's hopes of landing any silverware now rest on the UEFA Champions League, with the first leg of its quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain its next test on Thursday (AEST).
PSG and Liverpool have met on six previous occasions in European competition, with both sides registering three wins each.
Their most recent meetings came in the UEFA Champions League last season, where both teams won 1-0 away from home in the Round of 16, before the Parisien side won in a penalty shootout 4-1 at Anfield to progress.
"It's a together thing, isn't it? Obviously, he's responsible as the manager, but we are the ones on the pitch that have to do it," Van Dijk added.
"The matter of fact is now, PSG are waiting for us. I watched them on Friday a little bit. It will be so tough again. So we have to be ready mentally as soon as possible.
"I've been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years. The main thing we always had was togetherness.
"Now, obviously, we are in a little bit of a transition, we have to find it. It's difficult to perform every two days if you don't have it consistently."
