Virgil van Dijk has said Liverpool should disregard title challengers Manchester City and Arsenal as the squad continues to adapt to the methods of new head coach Andoni Iraola. The captain spoke after the Reds suffered only their second defeat in 14 games under Iraola, losing 1-0 at home to defending Premier League champions Arsenal on Sunday.
Defeat leaves Liverpool trailing leaders
The result leaves Liverpool six points behind second-placed City, the only other team to beat Iraola's side this season, and nine points adrift of leaders Arsenal. Despite the gap, Van Dijk insists the focus must remain on improvement rather than on rivals.
"We have to just focus on ourselves," said Van Dijk. "I don't think it is good to think about the other two and even Brighton. We have to focus on ourselves and we are in a process."
Transition under new head coach
Van Dijk acknowledged the team is in a period of transition, having been together for four months. "We play at Liverpool and we want results every three days, especially at home," he added. "The main thing is we keep working very hard and that we see improvement, but the matter of fact is we are in a transition. (Arsenal) was a great opportunity to get a good result, but unfortunately it didn't happen, so we have to take it."
Reflecting on the defeat, he said: "We should not lower our standards. We obviously troubled the champions, but we played at home, and we wanted to win. We had opportunities to score, but in the end, we come away with nothing. That is frustrating and we are all disappointed."
Setbacks from playing out from the back
Van Dijk had spoken last week about the team taking more risks in play to pursue greater reward. He accepts there will be occasional setbacks with that approach after Liverpool conceded the only goal against Arsenal when attempting to play out from the back.
"For sure," he said. "We can see in the first half that I was going to press (Martin) Odegaard and he was never going to get the ball. The outlet for them was a long ball to (Noni) Madueke against Milos (Kerkez) and then play the second ball from there."
He added: "When you are playing against an Arsenal team that is very good and defensively structured, the gaps are so short. You see (Kai) Havertz almost being a number six in front of their defence at times. That is how hard they work, and it is difficult to find those moments. You need a bit of luck at set-pieces at times. We had small opportunities, but unfortunately it wasn't enough."
Liverpool will look to respond when they face Fenerbahce in Istanbul on Wednesday evening, aiming to extend their 100% start to the Champions League campaign.
