Virgil van Dijk has dismissed suggestions of unrest within the Liverpool squad, insisting there is no “disharmony” behind the scenes while warning that social media scrutiny will pose a growing challenge for future generations of players.
Liverpool have endured an uneven campaign and sit sixth in the Premier League, having gone five league matches without a win before Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Newcastle.
Head coach Arne Slot has faced mounting external criticism during that spell, despite guiding the club to the title last season.
“It’s like us players as well. If you don’t perform you get criticism and that’s part and parcel of the game,” Van Dijk said.
“We have to perform. That’s what we didn’t do on a consistent basis but we speak about that every three or four days unfortunately.
“Saturday was a good performance and the same for midweek [against Qarabag]. Now it’s down to us to work this week on Man City and do that again.”
When asked whether Slot deserved greater respect, Van Dijk questioned the source of the criticism.
“Who gives him the disrespect? That’s the question,” he said. “Is the disrespect being given by people that we shouldn’t value their disrespect?
“I can also think about players being disrespected. Who disrespects the players? Is that someone you value, is it a significant show of disrespect or someone you can just let slide and instead just focus on the task ahead to be successful as a Liverpool player?”
The centre-back also highlighted the impact of social media on modern players.
“If you’re going to read all that stuff, one week you could be the hero and the next week the villain,” he said. “I spoke last week about how much worse and more difficult it’s getting every year. For the next generation it will be a very big challenge.
“Every era has its own challenges and that part of outside the game will be a big challenge for the next generation, and it’s already a challenge for this generation.”
Van Dijk stressed there were no internal issues within the squad, despite recent results.
“The matter of fact is we are Premier League champions and we have not been good enough on a consistent basis. That’s just a fact,” he said. “The criticism comes and that’s something we just have to accept.
“I don’t think there has been any question about togetherness internally. I don’t think there’s any disharmony. There are obviously challenges that happen and everyone is dealing with certain situations in a different way.
“It’s about dealing with it together, fixing it and changing things around. That’s something that makes you stronger as a team.”
