Virgil van Dijk has spoken of his frustration after Liverpool slipped up in the Premier League title race and believes Tottenham Hotspur deserve credit for the way they played at Anfield.
Although the Reds moved to the top of the Premier League table on Saturday night, they did so after being held to a 1-1 draw by Spurs. Son Heung-min opened the scoring for the visitors before Luis Diaz equalised for the Reds when his shot deflected off Rodrigo Bentancur with 16 minutes remaining.
But speaking post-match, Van Dijk admitted it didn’t feel like his side had rescued a point. The Dutchman has also called on his team-mates to use the frustration of the draw as motivation for their remaining league games.
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He said: “It doesn’t feel like [a point rescued] at all. Obviously we knew their game plan, we knew the quality they have, especially on the break.
“I think on the ball we were just not good enough. We lost the ball in difficult situations and if you lose the ball in those situations you’re not well organised, so they can do what they are good at.
“Every break on attacking corners was quite dangerous as well. In the end, it’s frustrating. It is frustrating to drop points, but we have to recover and play the remaining games. We have quite exciting games still coming up and we have to turn disappointment now into focus on Villa.”
Speaking after the game, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp suggested Tottenham should have offered more with their 'world-class' ability after a counter-attacking approach. But Van Dijk disagrees with his boss and believes Antonio Conte’s side deserve 'credit' for the way they played.
He said: “That’s the quality they have, you have to be organised well, you have to be ready to run back. I think we lost the ball when we tried to force it a little bit in danger areas where they can break on us.
“Obviously you have to give them credit, they created good chances as well, on the break especially. We were looking for the equaliser and we got it. But we were looking for the winner as well and, unfortunately, we couldn’t win today.”
Before the Dutchman continued to BT Sport: “We’re disappointed that we dropped points here but so far we are having quite a good season.
“We are all human beings and there is a reason that we feel this way when we drop points, especially with the wins that we had lately in a row. But it is what it is and now we have to recover and focus on Villa.”
