Virgil van Dijk slams Liverpool's wasteful finishing in Leicester loss

Virgil van Dijk hammers Liverpool attacker’s performance against Leicester City

Speaking in an interview after the loss against Leicester City, as quoted by the Metro, Liverpool defender, Virgil van Dijk, suggested that his team failed to capitalise on chances in the final third.

We lost a crucial game against Leicester last night and handed a significant boost to Manchester City’s intentions to grab the title this season. Jurgen Klopp’s world-class attackers failed to ripple Kasper Schmeichel’s net yesterday, which raised eyebrows considering our fine goal-scoring form this year.

Mohamed Salah, who has been fierce in front of the goal this season, could have earned us the lead inside the first 15 minutes of the game. Wilfred Ndidi brought down the Egyptian in the Leicester penalty box but the Egyptian star’s shot was saved by Schmeichel before Salah’s header on the rebound struck the bar.

Liverpool attackers missed a lot of chances last night.

Salah’s partner in crime, Sadio Mane, got several chances last night to put the game to rest. But the Senegalese also failed to capitalize on it. Diogo Jota wasn’t any better and was wasteful with his chances and at times, in possession.

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk lauded Brendan Rodgers’ team and suggested that his side’s display in the attacking front was quite disappointing last night.

“I think they [Leicester] deserved the win, but that was obviously also down to us. I think we were poor in the last third. A lot of crosses they defended well. Overall, not a good performance. They didn’t create much but looked dangerous on the break, which they are good at.”

Virgil van Dijk critical about the performance of Liverpool in the opponent half.

The former Southampton defender showed concern for the penalty miss from Salah, which could have saved the night for Jurgen Klopp’s team. The 30-year-old superstar said:

“We created good chances, but unfortunately today wasn’t the day it went in the back of the net. Penalty miss, which happens. But it’s disappointing.”

This was Liverpool’s second defeat in the league. However, Manchester City are in impressive form. The Citizens won their ninth consecutive match last Sunday when they put six past Leicester City and now take on Brentford tonight in a bid to increase their lead at the top of the table to 9 points.

The competition has become so intense that Liverpool wouldn’t be able to catch Manchester City without winning games regularly. Man City are relentless in title races and if they are handed a sizable lead, it would become unscalable for us. There is still time left in the season but our players could perhaps us double finishing sessions in training before our game against Chelsea.

Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk celebrate a Liverpool goal together. — Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool. (imago Images)

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The Blues are level on points with us and failure to beat them could mean we are left too far off in the title race to have any hopes of catching up. Another concern that will now start to emerge is us playing games without Salah and Mane once they depart for AFCON.