Reds defender Virgil van Dijk has branded Liverpool’s performance in Saturday’s shock 3-0 defeat against Watford as “unacceptable” after their 44-match unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an abrupt end.
The Merseyside club made the trip to Vicarage Road on the back of 18 successive Premier League wins, one short of setting a new record in England’s top flight, but they were nowhere near their best as Watford ran out deserved 3-0 winners putting the table-toppers to the sword.
Senegalese winger Ismaila Sarr was the star of the show at Vicarage Road, scoring Watford’s first two and then setting up Troy Deeney for the third just 17 minutes from the full-time whistle, all three goals coming after the lively Gerard Deulofeu was forced off with a potentially serious knee injury following a scrap with Van Dijk.
Liverpool seldom threatened Ben Foster’s goal for most of the game and Van Dijk accepted that Liverpool were simply were not good enough, and the Dutchman was particularly critical of the manner of the loss.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the 28-year-old centre back explained that conceding goals is something that Liverpool don’t do often and as a team collectively, they have to improve, “If you concede three goals – that’s something we didn’t do for quite a while – obviously we have to improve as a team in total, and we will, It’s unacceptable that we lose here 3-0, in this way as well. The whole season we didn’t lose a game like this, I think they did very well, but we should’ve done better. We want to strike back, and we will.”
