Virgil van Dijk has admitted that he hasn’t seen Arne Slot angrier than he was at half-time against Southampton.
Liverpool may have won 3-1 at Anfield on Saturday, but the opening 45 minutes were arguably as poor as the Reds have been all season.
The Premier League leaders trailed 1-0 to struggling Southampton at the break, with Van Dijk and Alisson badly at fault for Will Smallbone’s goal.
Slot addressed the situation at half-time, and when asked if it was the angriest he had ever seen him, the skipper admitted as much.
“Yes, but if you look at the first half, he had every right to be angry,” Van Dijk explained.
“And I think from his point of view as well, it was even more frustrating to see.
“But we did what we all wanted in the second half and what he wanted as well and now we move on. He wasn’t happy and he had every right to [not be].
“No-one was really happy with the first half performance, but we are all human beings and we had no intention to play the first half like we did.
“Unfortunately we did, but we turned it around. That’s part of football.”
Van Dijk also discussed his part in Southampton‘s goal, which saw him fail to clear the danger, allowing Smallbone to open the scoring.
“Sometimes these things can happen in football, unfortunately,” he added.
“Apart from that, I don’t think there were many problems at all, but unfortunately, these things happen and it was just miscommunication.”
Quite what happened in that first half on Saturday is up for debate, but it was clear that Liverpool were miles off the pace.
They may have been fatigued from their excursions away to Paris Saint-Germain, or arguably have taken Saints for granted.
Huge improvements are required when PSG head to Anfield on Tuesday, however, or their Champions League dream will be under threat.
Van Dijk’s error was a rare slip-up, but given what a fantastic captain he has been, he will ensure that Liverpool are switched on against Luis Enrique’s side.
