ReactionVirgil van Dijk: We need each other, we need to stick together

The Reds' Champions League journey in 2022-23 began with a 4-1 loss against the Serie A side at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Jürgen Klopp's squad now have a quick turnaround as they gear up for Wolverhampton Wanderers' visit to Anfield in the Premier League this weekend, with Van Dijk calling for everyone to 'stick together' and deliver a response.

Read on for Liverpoolfc.com's post-match interview with the No.4 in Naples…

Virgil, a difficult night at the office. How do you reflect on it after the game?

Disappointed, of course. Tough one to take. We're not in the best shape, best situation but we're going to make this right – that's the confidence I have. We need each other, we need to stick together – not only us as players but the whole club. Obviously we've been through it all and that's the message. Obviously we're all human beings, we want to try to perform as good as we can, sometimes you can have a bad patch and at the moment we're in it. But I'm confident we can get out of this and enjoy our football again.

You've set the bar so high for yourselves over the last few seasons in terms of how you approach games, how you control games, when you're defending games. How do you go about finding those levels again?

Stick together, don't point fingers. Everyone knows that everyone can do better. What I said, we're not robots, we're trying to perform and you can have bad moments. It's how you deal with them and now we'll definitely have a good look at what happened tonight together, speak with each other and focus on the game ahead of us. It's good for us that there's a game quite quickly after this and hopefully [we] get a great performance and result.

You say sticking together, it's about being a little bit angry but being angry in the right way, that controlled anger...

Definitely. Obviously we all know that we can do better. We all want to win games. What you said, we've been through it all, this team has won it all and we have to stick together. We're in a situation [where] we expect a lot more from ourselves and, what I said, we have to be with each other. We're all human beings, we go through difficult moments together and the only way to get out of it is to do it together and be together, so we will do that.

In terms of the Champions League and a bit of perspective, there are many different ways to get through a group, many different ways to be successful. You go back to the year we won it, we lost here in Napoli in the first game. This can change very quickly in terms of the Champions League...

It can change, definitely. There's so many games still to play but you wanted to have a good start. The situation is how it is. Next game in the Champions League will be Ajax at home and we need the fans, we need a good performance from us. It starts obviously on Saturday with a good opportunity against a good side as well, so we'll give everything. What I said, the key is to be together. We need everyone. If you start blaming others and don't look at yourself or create negativity around the club, then you're not getting out of this. I'm fully confident that we'll turn this around together.