Virgil van Dijk insists there is no reason for Liverpool to panic despite their perfect start to the Premier League title defence being ended by a disappointing performance at Crystal Palace.
The Reds slumped to a deserved 2-1 defeat against the unbeaten Londoners on Saturday afternoon after producing an alarmingly below-par display, particularly during a one-sided first half in which Palace could easily have scored more than Ismaila Sarr’s early opener.
Substitute Federico Chiesa appeared to have rescued an unlikely point for Arne Slot’s side with an 87th-minute equaliser, only for Palace substitute Eddie Nketiah to strike the winner deep into stoppage time.
Liverpool have yet to consistently find their rhythm this season, with several summer signings still adapting to a new-look team that has often relied on late goals to secure results.
And after suffering just a fifth Premier League defeat in 44 games under Slot, captain Van Dijk has urged against overreacting as the champions prepare for a challenging week on the road, starting with a Champions League clash away to Galatasaray on Tuesday evening.
“The biggest challenge now is to stay calm,” he said. “I have mentioned it many times: never get too high or too low. Just work and don’t listen to the outside world too much.
“You know when you can do better and everyone knew that.
“We are disappointed in our performance. Disappointed in the loss, but especially the way we went about it. I think if we got a draw, then we took already one point too many.
“I don’t think there is any reason to worry, but we have to improve pretty quickly because obviously we play in Turkey on Tuesday. We have a very difficult game there as well, so we have to be ready.”
“It was the basics that we didn’t do well. Sometimes you can have these days. Hopefully this is the only day this season that we do that.
“There is a reason Palace were 17, now 18, games unbeaten. They are very difficult to break down, very disciplined, they defend deep and they don’t mind that, and they have the quality on the break to hurt you.
“But it started all with ourselves. We were sloppy in possession, didn’t win our second ball fight, and we created momentum for them. They could have been three or four up by half-time.
“We are lucky that we have, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in the world to save us.”
Van Dijk added: “The issue is our performance. Especially first half, it was far below par. That is something we have to improve.
“It doesn’t really matter if we score late because sometimes teams are difficult to break down and you have to find a way to win games.
“Towards the end, teams are getting tired and the spaces will get bigger.
“So that’s not the issue. It is more looking at our performance, it was definitely not good. Not good at all. Palace deserved the win they eventually got as well.”
Arne Slot sprung a surprise by starting £116 million summer signing Florian Wirtz in a free role, before switching the Germany international to his more familiar No. 10 position after the interval.
When asked if Liverpool’s problems at Selhurst Park were more down to individual errors than tactical issues, Virgil van Dijk responded: “100%. If you look at the first half, everybody has to improve.
“Obviously Ali saved us, so I don’t think he could have done more.
“But second half we went back to what we are used to doing throughout the season.
“First half, Flo had a bit of a free role and we tried to make it difficult for their defenders to push up and find space in behind.
“But they didn’t mind sitting deep and using their strength and that is obviously the counter-attack and the set-pieces because they scored two set-pieces as well.”
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