Virgil van Dijk apologises to Liverpool fans and makes worrying admissions about teammates

Virgil van Dijk has apologised as he suggested Liverpool gave up during their FA Cup thumping at Manchester City.

The Reds were dumped out of the FA Cup as they were thrashed 4-0 during their quarter-final clash at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

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Mohamed Salah also missed a penalty in a cup tie that saw Erling Haaland bag a hat-trick and Antoine Semenyo score the other goal.

Van Dijk admitted it has been a ‘very tough’ season for the Premier League champions this term, adding there’s a lack of togetherness in the team.

Perhaps most alarmingly, Van Dijk suggested that Liverpool gave up any hope of winning the match which saw City score all of their goals over a 20-minute period.

Van Dijk’s apology

The Reds captain began: “Obviously you come out of the dressing room with the right intentions to score and make it 2-1 and change the game, but the opposite happened and then to come back from 3-0 is obviously very difficult here.

“But also you shouldn’t give up, and that’s maybe what happened at a certain point.”

The Dutch defender added: “We already spoke about it in the dressing room but it’s on us.

“The fans were there to support us and I can only apologise to the fans for what we have shown, especially the second half by the way.

“It’s difficult. Mentally, it has been a very tough season overall. I am trying to think how we can turn it around, but we have been going through this for almost 75 per cent of the season.

“Where we do well but we can’t build on certain things and we fall back into games where we get beat on intensity or beat on how much you really want to go for it.

“It is a difficult one to take and everyone has to look at themselves. I am speaking for myself but it is mentally tough at the moment to take this.”

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Their FA Cup exit is the latest blow in a challenging campaign for Arne Slot’s side.

Liverpool are currently 24 points worse off than they were at the same stage of the Premier League last season.

Meanwhile, they are at risk of missing out on Champions League qualification despite winning the league less than a year ago.

Van Dijk added: “I’ve been repeating myself too many times. You know it goes out in the media because obviously I’m here all the time.

“We let ourselves down and the manager, but we let our fans down.

“Up until the penalty, maybe not, but the way we played especially in the second half and that must hurt for everyone. It definitely hurts me. It’s a together thing, isn’t it? Obviously, he’s [Slot] responsible as the manager, but we are the ones on the pitch that have to do it.

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“The fact of the matter is now PSG is waiting for us. It will be so tough again. So we have to be ready mentally as soon as possible.

“We have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but especially to the fans and, if we want to make something out of this season, we have to try and do something special.”

Liverpool travel to France to face Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, live on talkSPORT.

They then host Fulham on Saturday before the return leg at Anfield.

The Reds currently sit fifth in the Premier League with seven matches remaining with fifth likely to be enough to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Although they are a point ahead of sixth place Chelsea, Liverpool remain five points adrift of the top four.

Their remaining matches include trips to Everton, Manchester United and Aston Villa as well as a home clash with Chelsea on May 9.