Virgil van Dijk apologised to Liverpool fans for the team’s FA Cup humiliation and said the players are to blame as much as Arne Slot.
Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick as Manchester City dismantled Liverpool 4-0 in a one-sided quarter-final at the Etihad Stadium.
“We let our fans down today,” the club captain said, admitting the result was among a “couple” of low points for his confidence-starved team this term. He added: “It’s mentally very tough at the moment, I must say.”
The alarming slump from last season’s Premier League champions was underlined in emphatic fashion as Haaland’s penalty late in the first half opened the floodgates.
Haaland added a second before the break with Antoine Semenyo making it three soon after the interval. Haaland’s hat-trick goal came before the hour.
Mohamed Salah, in his first appearance since announcing he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, had a penalty saved by James Trafford.
But with Slot’s future as Liverpool manager beyond the summer now in serious doubt, Van Dijk said players must take some blame.
When asked whether the players were doing enough for the under-pressure manager, he said: “Well, it’s a together thing, isn’t it? Obviously, he’s responsible as the manager, but we are the ones on the pitch that have to do it.”
Next up for Liverpool is a trip to Paris St-Germain for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
“The matter of fact is now PSG is waiting for us,” Van Dijk said. “I watched them yesterday a little bit, and it will be so tough again. So we have to be ready mentally as soon as possible.”
Van Dijk said the squad was feeling “very disappointed” on Saturday and it will be “very difficult” to lift themselves. However, he added: “We have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but especially to the fans and, if we want to make something out of this season, we have to try and do something special in the next three games.”
Assessing the quality of the Liverpool squad, he said: “Their quality is there. I’ve been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years and the main thing always was the togetherness.
“Now, obviously, we are in a little bit of a transition so we have to find it. It’s still difficult to then perform each and every three days if we don’t have it consistently, if you know what I mean. The togetherness on the pitch to show it for 90-plus minutes every three or four days. That is difficult.”