Florian Wirtz has issued a polite but firm rebuttal to Virgil van Dijk’s stinging assessment of Liverpool’s weekend surrender, insisting the Reds’ squad did not “give up” during their Manchester City 4-0 nightmare.
The fallout from Saturday’s demoralising 4-0 FA Cup exit at the Etihad has followed Liverpool across the Channel.
The game started in an alright fashion for Arne Slot’s side, but the floodgates well and truly opened after Erling Haaland smashed home a penalty, off the back of Virgil van Dijk clumsily fouling the lethal marksman.
Van Dijk then sparked a wave of internal debate following that capitulation, suggesting his teammates had effectively thrown in the towel once the result had slipped away.
However, speaking inside the Parc des Princes ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain, Wirtz Liverpool’s talismanic German international offered a different view of the mood within the camp.
Van Dijk was the man to front up, offering a series of characteristically frank post-match musings as the dust settled on a disastrous result
Facing the media for his pre-match duties in the bowels of the Parc des Princes, Wirtz was interrogated on his captain’s unfiltered assessment as the German playmaker prepares to shoulder the creative burden once more on the grandest stage of all
Wirtz was unfortunately extremely quiet during the one-sided affair in the FA Cup, as he could only muster up one weak effort at the City net.
This is a far cry from his sublime best for the Reds, which he showed off in the last 16 in the Champions League, as the Reds tore Galatasaray to shreds 4-0 at Anfield.
The inconsistent German created a stunning eight big chances during the dominant Liverpool performance, with the ex-Bayer Leverkusen attacker hopeful he can be this influential against Luis Enrique’s side.
Before he, hopefully, lets his football do the talking against the Ligue 1 giants, he was quizzed on Van Dijk’s cold comments about the mental resolve of the Reds this season.
He clearly responded by stating: “I didn’t know that he said this. But I think I wouldn’t agree directly because we still tried to create chances to turn the game around. Of course when the games gets longer and it’s like in the 80th minute and you’re 3-0 back mentally it’s difficult to go and go.
We just tried to give our best in the game when it was 3-0 or 4-0 we had still a few chances then. Of course it’s not our standards that we lose 4-0 against City. We wanted to go through that round. Next year we should do better and be better on the pitch.”
Acknowledging how tough games have been as of late, Wirtz still sounded optimistic – and not as broken and bruised as his teammate – when talking about matches ahead.
Knowing full well that his team needs to “be better on the pitch” amid standards slipping, which has seen Liverpool lose an eye-watering 15 games this season, the German will hope his low-on-confidence side can get a disgruntled fanbase back on side, with a victory in France.
Arne Slot echoed the thoughts of his captain as he conceded that the fight from his side was missing. The Liverpool boss is under pressure to deliver Champions League football as talk continues over whether he could be shown the door
“I missed the fighting spirit definitely in the first 10 minutes after half-time and then afterwards it was just a game where both teams accepted it was 4-0,” Slot had admitted, in what was a startlingly blunt post-mortem of the Etihad collapse.
It was a rare moment of public condemnation from a man who had secured the Premier League title in a storied debut year at the helm. However, the subsequent £400m summer revamp which saw the British transfer record shattered twice, including the landmark arrival of Wirtz has yet to yield the expected dominance this term.
Despite a campaign where the Reds have struggled mightily to recapture their identity, the former Bayer Leverkusen talisman was quick to move to his manager’s defense in Paris, insisting the squad remains firmly behind the Dutchman’s vision.
He said: “Yes, of course. We are believing in the manager, the team should believe in the manager as they won the league last season, we have had a lot of good games this season. We wanted it to be better but it is what it is now. We still have things to play for and everything I can say to that is that we believe in the manager and try to get our best on the pitch tomorrow.”
