Latest Liverpool news: Van Dijk rejects claims that Reds are playing a high line due to VAR

Liverpool’s defence hasn’t looked as tight as it did in the previous season.

Part of it can be down to the Reds missing Alisson in between the sticks. The Brazilian injured his calf against Norwich and has seen Adrian take over the goalkeeping duties.

The Reds, however, gave Norwich plenty of chances in the Premier League opener while we were open in the first half of the Community Shield against Manchester City.

Southampton and Chelsea also created several chances against us, but Virgil van Dijk rejected claims that the Reds are playing a higher line this season.

The Dutchman was speaking to the Times (h/t Metro) and claimed the Reds weren’t doing things differently:

“In certain situations it looks like it [a high line] but I don’t think we’re doing things differently.

“There were certain goals disallowed and it looks then that we’re not defending pretty well.”

The centre-back was further asked if Liverpool were trying to play offside more often thanks to VAR, but again, the Dutch defender claimed it wasn’t due to the new technology:

“No, no! It’s nothing to do with VAR.

“The new rule is we have to play on until the whistle, and sometimes it looks a bit chaotic, especially when we have a high line, and the player is offside and we still play on.”

Liverpool need to be better defensively

Although the Reds are yet to lose a match this season, we need to be tighter as a unit at the back.

Quality teams will punish us for any mistakes in the defence, and there have been occasions when our players have been caught out of position.

It is still early in the season and there will be some rustiness as the team is yet to click into gear.

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Van Dijk will ensure the defence improves in the coming weeks, and hopefully, we can start racking up the clean sheets.