Virgil van Dijk known as Liverpool’s Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace a “disappointing” begin to their Premier League title defence.
Liverpool drew 2-2 with Palace at Wembley, regardless of twice taking the lead by means of new signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong and had been then defeated on penalties.
Mohamed Salah missed his penalty, earlier than Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott noticed efforts saved by Dean Henderson.
Liverpool want to defend their title for the primary time since 1984 and captain Van Dijk was not pleased with how his aspect started the season.
He instructed ESPN: “Clearly in the present day we misplaced so that’s not begin, however we must take it sport by sport.
“That’s the mindset and has all the time been the mindset for us, it will be a really intense season in all competitions, and we’ve got to be prepared to point out our high quality in that sense.
“There have been good issues however there are additionally loads of issues that we’ve got to enhance, and we’ve got to work on and that’s our plan now.
“You need to win this sport, it’s a closing, it’s a trophy that we play for and that may be a disappointing a part of it.”
Arne Slot chosen his 4 new signings to begin at Wembley and inside 20 minutes three of them had already had a direct hand in a aim.
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Florian Wirtz, who signed from Bayern Leverkusen in a £100 million ($134m) deal, assisted Ekitike, who joined from Eintracht Frankfurt, after simply 4 minutes.
Frimpong, who also joined from Leverkusen, then chipped Dean Henderson from a decent angle to make it 2-1 to Liverpool, after Jean-Phillipe Mateta had equalised from the penalty spot, following Van Dijk’s foul on Ismaïla Sarr.
The Netherlands defender was happy together with his new teammates’ contributions and the way they’ve settled into the membership.
“The gamers that are available in deliver high quality to the group, gamers which are leaving, we want them effectively of their subsequent journey and that’s how soccer generally works,” he mentioned.
“All the brand new boys for my part have settled in fairly properly, clearly it will be important while you come to a brand new membership to have the ability to present your self instantly and it’s a must to really feel like you’re welcome and I feel the boys are feeling simply that.
“I feel we’ve got superb gamers, we’ve got high quality gamers, that’s clearly a cause we received the Premier League final 12 months however not solely due to high quality however quite a lot of exhausting work and dedication.”
Liverpool start their title defence at Anfield on Aug. 15 towards Bournemouth and Van Dijk gave his teammates a stern warning that they need to enhance forward of the Premier League opener.
“There have been many good issues on this sport, however there was quite a lot of work to do nonetheless and we’ve got 5 extra days to prepare for the beginning of the Premier League and that’s what we’ve got to do,” he added.