Virgil van Dijk gets honest with Liverpool squad and fears star faces surgery | Football | Sport

Liverpool will still be ruminating over how they squandered their 1-0 lead against Manchester City in a frenzied final 20 minutes at Anfield on Sunday. Dominik Szoboszlai’s spectacular free-kick was nullified by a Bernardo Silva goal and an Erling Haaland penalty, before the Hungarian was sent off in a VAR review that also disallowed a third goal from Rayan Cherki. The silver lining for the Reds is that they have an opportunity to swiftly bounce back from the devastating loss, although Wednesday’s journey to the Stadium of Light – where Sunderland remain undefeated in the Premier League this season – will pose another formidable challenge.

Szoboszlai will be absent for Arne Slot, who is already grappling with an injury crisis. Despite his selection headaches, Slot recognises the need to reignite his team’s pursuit of Champions League football with just 13 matches remaining. Failure to do so could place the Dutchman’s position under significant scrutiny. Captain Virgil van Dijk is acutely aware of the task ahead, while there’s further worrying news regarding new recruit Jeremy Jacquet. Here, Express Sport examines the latest headlines surrounding Liverpool…

After successfully keeping Haaland quiet for most of the match, Van Dijk appeared notably frustrated following the 2-1 defeat. He called for his team-mates to step up their game after conceding their sixth stoppage-time goal of the season, which has cost them a total of eight points.

“I think you can’t compare all of the goals [conceded in stoppage time],” Van Dijk stated. “I think maybe you can compare the Crystal Palace goal and the Bournemouth goal but this one you can’t compare with the others. But the fact is that we conceded that late on and I keep saying it but we have to do better in this.

“You also have to remember that you’re playing against City, who are obviously very comfortable on the ball, and at times, when you don’t win the ball, because we did many times as well, I think making the right decisions could have been better.

“But yeah, it’s easy now to maybe say that we dropped off too much and that’s why they scored the equaliser. Overall the feeling that I have right now is that in the first half we weren’t good enough, in the second half we were much better but still disappointed we lost.

“At the moment [we don’t take positives] because I’m disappointed that we lost. But I will do everything in my power to recover and then we’ll discuss it and then we have to turn our attention very, very quickly to an opponent that is having a very good season, especially at home, so it will be a big battle.”

Jacquet ‘could require surgery’

Jacquet’s £60million summer arrival was confirmed during an otherwise subdued January transfer window for the Reds. The 20-year-old stayed at Rennes for the remainder of the campaign to further his progress in France in the meantime.

Nevertheless, that approach may now prove obsolete, with L’Equipe reporting he could need an operation on the shoulder problem sustained during a 3-1 loss to Lens on Saturday. He was withdrawn in the second period following an uncomfortable fall.

His now-ex-manager Habib Beye, who left the Ligue 1 side on Monday, said afterwards: “For Jeremy, it’s his shoulder. We’ll have time to see, but it’s definitely quite serious.”

It’s understood an operation would sideline him for a minimum of several weeks, potentially until the end of the season, whilst it might also affect his Merseyside pre-season preparations.

Although still in its infancy, Slot will be hoping the injury is not as severe as initially thought, having already seen Giovanni Leoni ruled out long-term, whilst also expecting Ibrahima Konate’s departure as a free agent when the season ends.