‘Really?’ – Virgil van Dijk hits back over Liverpool worry that multiple journalists have raised
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ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAYHowever, with the season being a particularly chastening one for LFC and Champions League football not yet secured, several prominent journalists – including James Pearce (The Athletic), David Lynch and Paul Gorst (Liverpool Echo) – have openly questioned the head coach’s training regime ahead of such an important fixture.Van Dijk hits out over questions about players’ time offSpeaking after the loss to Man United, Van Dijk bristled at one reporter’s question about the Liverpool squad having ‘a few days off’ in the week leading up to the game.He answered (via Mail Sport): “A few days off? You mean one day off?”, adding: “I think if you have one day off, and you don’t have many days off, they decide what they want to do with their families.
Everyone is an adult.“This week we have an early kick-off on Saturday [v Chelsea], so preparation is on that. It’s not that we have a holiday whatsoever.”(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Replying to claims that Liverpool haven’t been training enough, Van Dijk said: “Really?
Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustShould Liverpool decision-makers have read the room a bit better?It shouldn’t be forgotten that elite footballers have personal lives, with many of them having young families from whom they spent a lot of time away during the season, given the ever-increasing demands on players at the highest level.Liverpool have had numerous instances of playing three matches in a week over the past few months, and a number of Reds players (including Van Dijk) will be representing their countries at the World Cup in a few weeks’ time.It’s only right that footballers are allowed the freedom to switch off from the demands of elite sport and enjoy downtime with family, although the questions about LFC’s preparations for the Man United game are legitimate. Considering how badly this season has gone, the optics of allowing players to jet off around Europe in the days leading up to a fixture against our arch-rivals are rather poor, especially when we haven’t yet qualified for the Champions League.It was one thing for Liverpool to have a jolly-up this time last year after the Premier League title had already been secured.