The Reds' hopes of winning the league suffered a devastating blow as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday (24.04.24) and Van Dijk offered some harsh words on the team's performance in the pivotal fixture.

The centre-back told Sky Sports: "Very disappointed in so many ways. I think everyone has to look in the mirror, look at their own performance and if they really gave everything. Do they really want to win the league?

"We are fighting, there are games after tonight, but play like we did overall in the game like today... not winning challenges and giving the ref an opportunity to give a free-kick like he did many times, then you have no chance to win a title.

"It’s a tough one and we need to do much better against a side that’s [fighting] relegation. We had clear-cut chances in the first half that we should have scored but we weren’t good enough and it starts with the fight. We can’t let the season go out like this."

Liverpool's form has dropped off in recent weeks as they have fallen off the pace in the Premier League title battle and Van Dijk is at a loss to explain why things have taken a downturn.

He said: "I wish I had a proper answer. We are in this situation because we have been very consistent throughout the whole season, even with all injuries that we had.

"I think everyone at the start of the season would never have been thinking that we would be competing for the title but I don’t care what everyone says at the start.

"We are here now and we have to do much better, and it starts with the fight, it starts with the will to win you challenges and be confident in scoring goals and that’s what we have been lacking a little bit."