Virgil van Dijk responds to fresh blow after suffering Liverpool heartbreak

Virgil van Dijk has been hit with a number of blows both on the club an international front over the past few weeks and the Liverpool star will now be aiming to end the season on a positive

Virgil van Dijk admits he is ‘hurting’ after what has been a difficult few weeks for the Liverpool captain. The Dutchman has endured a heart-wrenching few results recently having seen the Reds’ Champions League campaign ended in brutal fashion by Paris Saint-Germain.

Liverpool were then defeated in the Carabao Cup final by Newcastle at Wembley. And just as Van Dijk was looking forward to a break from his club woes, things then got worse on the international stage with the Netherlands.

Van Dijk’s side were defeated in the UEFA Nations League playoffs by Spain on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw, the Spanish now sealing a spot in the semi-finals. And Van Dijk has admitted the disappointment is now starting to have a mental toll on him.

“Losing just hurts,” he told Dutch television after Sunday’s defeat to Spain. “It was a great football fight, but we are out. That’s disappointing.

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“We could’ve made it, but unfortunately, Spain progressed. We showed a good version of ourselves in Rotterdam. We tried to pull that through, and we did that at times.”

Away from his international troubles, Van Dijk has already offered a defiant view on the closing months of the season. Liverpool are within touching distance of winning the Premier League title during Arne Slot’s first season at Anfield.

And his captain is determined not to let the campaign fizzle out, while claiming his teammates should not need extra drive to finally lift the title. He said: “We have to turn this around. It’s how football works: in five days you lose twice and the world is sinking, sort of how you can say it, and two weeks before everything was, you know, sunshine and rainbows everywhere.

“We all have to realise is the job is not done for what we have coming up. We have to work our ass [off] for it and everyone needs to realise.”

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Van Dijk added: “Yeah, but for me personally, there shouldn’t be extra motivation. You play for the biggest prize that you work so hard for from the start of the season when no-one expected us to be challenging for, first and foremost, the Premier League, one of the biggest prizes, and then on the side of that all the other trophies.

“Obviously the Champions League we couldn’t get it done, this we lost and the FA Cup we got knocked out. We have nine games to go and I don’t think there’s any motivation needed to try to get the job done.

“What is needed is that we have to realise there is hard work and and still a job to do. Each one of us, including the guys that maybe don’t play as much, guys out of the squad or the young boys, our fans, so nine games to go.”

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