1 week ago
40
Virgil van Dijk said that the referee explained that his foul on Dango Outtara took place on the line of Liverpool's penalty area, and that is why Brentford's free-kick in the second half was upgraded to a penalty.
With Brentford leading Liverpool 2-1 as the hour mark at the Gtech Community Stadium approached, Van Dijk felled Outtara as the Bees winger dribbled away from Liverpool's goal.
Outtara was taking the ball from inside the penalty area to just outside it when he was taken down by Van Dijk, and after a short VAR delay, it was explained that Brentford would have a penalty instead of a free kick.
"The referee said the ball was on the line and then he marked the spot two metres outside the box," Van Dijk said. "I didn't know really what was going on. In the end he gives it and that is obviously not great."
Liverpool lost the game 3-2 — the Reds' fourth successive defeat in the Premier League.
"Disappointed about losing here," Van Dijk said of the loss. "We know what their strengths were and what they were going to try to do. We needed to be spot on with the quality they had.
"It was a disappointing night overall for us. Tough to take but it's the reality and we need to keep going."
Speaking to TNT Sports, Van Dijk added: "It's the reality that we lost today. We have the next game on Wednesday against an opponent [Crystal Palace] who already made our life difficult this season.
"We have to turn our mindset pretty quickly to be ready for that. They will come to Anfield to hurt us even more, but this is a tough one to take. We can't deny that. It's not an easy moment. We were trying to build on that performance against Frankfurt and this was not a nice evening to have.
Liverpool has kept just two clean sheets in 14 games in all competitions since the start of the season, and Van Dijk was at a loss to explain why the team has been so defensively leaky.
"It's difficult to say," he said. "The fact we didn't keep a clean sheet for nine games! It's easy to blame a particular person, the backline or set-pieces. But it's a collective thing in the end. Everyone has to look in the mirror including myself. I am sure we will get out of this.
"But we won't do it just by talking about it. We will try to improve. We need each other, we ned the support. We need the people who were celebrating with us last year to be with us now even more. We will get out of this because we have the quality offensively and defensively."
English (US) ·