EMERGENCY MEETING! VIRGIL VAN DIJK TO CHALLENGE LIVERPOOL SQUAD FOLLOWING DISASTROUS BURNLEY DRAW RESULTS
Virgil van Dijk calls a high-stakes players' meeting after Liverpool's fourth straight draw. Get the latest on Salah's return.
Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s captain, plans to call another players’ meeting on Monday. The team’s push for a Champions League spot feels like it’s slipping, and he wants to tackle the problems head-on.
Van Dijk was furious after Liverpool let Burnley equalise at Anfield. Burnley barely threatened all game—except for one shaky five-minute spell in the second half—and yet Liverpool still ended up with just a draw. Four straight league draws now, something the club hasn’t suffered since 2008. He didn’t even stick around long in the dressing room; he bolted out to speak to the reporters, still fuming.
But the real reckoning comes Monday at the training ground. For the second time this season, Van Dijk’s going to challenge his teammates, just like he did after that ugly loss to Manchester United in October, right in the middle of an awful run.
“I’m frustrated that after 60 minutes we started to become sloppy, and it’s not the first time,” Van Dijk said, looking ahead to a huge Champions League trip to Marseille. “We’ve talked about it before, but here we are again. Monday’s meeting is a big one, because Wednesday’s game over there is going to be really tough—not just because of the atmosphere, but because De Zerbi’s teams always make life difficult.”
He’s not interested in making this about himself. He wants solutions. “It’s not about me calling it out. It’s about how we fix it. We all want to win, and we had more than enough chances against Burnley.”
The result didn’t go down well. The crowd made their feelings clear, jeering as Liverpool missed a chance to close the gap on Manchester City. Now they’re clinging to fourth place, just a point ahead of a whole pack—Manchester United, Chelsea, Brentford, Sunderland, and Newcastle are all close behind.
Van Dijk’s response to the boos? Short and sharp: “I don’t like boos from my own fans.”
He knows what’s at stake. If Liverpool keeps wasting chances, that fourth spot’s going to get harder to hold onto. “I don’t look at what everyone else is doing. We need to focus on ourselves. If we play as we did—wasting chances in the last half-hour—it’s going to be tough. We need to improve, not just watch the others.”
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Dominik Szoboszlai smashed a penalty off the crossbar, Florian Wirtz scored his fourth in six games, and Arne Slot’s side seemed set to take control. Liverpool fired off 32 shots but couldn’t find that crucial second goal. Then Marcus Edwards equalised with Burnley’s only shot on target.
There’s some hope: Mohamed Salah is set to return next week. Whether he’ll be ready for Marseille is still up in the air, after Egypt lost the AFCON third-place play-off on Saturday.
Salah left the club a month ago after a falling-out with Slot, frustrated and accusing the team of throwing him under the bus after a string of bad results landed him on the bench.
Van Dijk is clear about Salah’s value. “With his quality, he wins games for us. Off the pitch, he’s huge for the squad too. He couldn’t make the AFCON final, but when he’s back, we need him to help us.”
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Liverpool’s in a tight spot right now. After losing to Wolves at Molineux, they’re clinging to fifth place, usually good enough for a Champions League spot, but the cushion isn’t exactly comfortable. They’re just three points ahead of Chelsea, who still have a game in hand against Aston Villa. That race is heating up fast.
Virgil van Dijk summed it up pretty well: “Either we get it, and we deserve it, or we don’t get it, and we don’t deserve it. If you play for Liverpool, it’s always been like this. It’s down to us, together with our fans, to get the results we need to get into the Champions League.” He also mentioned that Arne Slot, the head coach, wasn’t exactly thrilled after the loss; “angry” was the word he used.
But it’s not just about pride or missing out on big European nights. There’s a lot of money on the line. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire pointed out that missing out on the Champions League could leave a big dent in Liverpool’s bank account, even if the club runs pretty sensibly these days.
UEFA’s numbers tell the story. Liverpool earned €98.1 million (£85.3 million/$114 million) just for reaching the last 16 of the 2024–25 Champions League. Compare that to the Europa League, where they only received €26.8 million (£23.3 million/$31.1 million) for reaching the quarterfinals last season. The gap is massive.
Even winning the lesser European trophies doesn’t come close. Tottenham got €41.4 million (£36 million/$48.1 million) for winning the Europa League, and Chelsea picked up €21.8 million (£20 million/$26.7 million) for the Conference League. It’s nowhere near what Champions League teams bring home.
Maguire also pointed out the other hits: fewer home match days, less broadcast cash, and sponsors that pay out less when the club misses the top tier. He reckons missing out could cost Liverpool around £120 million ($160 million). Still, he doesn’t think it’ll sink the club.
And it’s not like Liverpool have been shy about spending. Last summer alone, they shelled out more than £400 million ($534.5 million) on big names like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak – the biggest single-window spend in football history, actually.
Even with all that, Liverpool just reported record revenues of £703 million ($939 million) for the year ending May 2025, turning a modest £8 million ($10.7 million) profit. And here’s the kicker: despite that wild summer, Liverpool ranks only eighth in net transfer spend over the past five years. They’ve been splashing the cash, sure, but they’ve kept things balanced in the long run.
WHAT’S MISSING? WHY 16 GOALS AND 6 ASSISTS AREN'T ENOUGH FOR HUGO EKITIKE
Liverpool's top scorer Hugo Ekitike reflects on a massive win at Anfield and explains why he’s still hungry for more goals.
Hugo Ekitike isn’t exactly thrilled with his goal tally for Liverpool this season, even though he’s still leading the pack as the club’s top scorer.
He got his 16th goal of the season on Saturday, kicking things off in Liverpool’s 5-2 win over West Ham at Anfield. Not bad for his debut year. Plus, the 23-year-old, who came over from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer for up to £79 million, set up two more goals for Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo. That puts him at 22 goal involvements so far.
Still, Ekitike thinks he’s got a lot more to give. He missed solid chances against Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, and Manchester City recently, and that’s still bugging him.
“To be honest, I could score more,” he said. “I’m not that happy! But it’s not just about goals; it’s assists too. On Saturday, I set up one or two. As long as I’m helping the team and being involved, that’s what really matters. I want to win, so in that way, I’m happy.
“Obviously, I can improve. I could’ve scored in those last games; I had some good chances. So I’ll keep working. I want to be the best I can for the team, because I know I can do more.
“It’s all about learning and getting better. I’ll try to step it up in the next games, score more, and get involved even more.”
His goal against West Ham came after Liverpool kept the pressure on from a corner. Four of their goals that day came straight from, or just after, set pieces.
“We had some problems at the start of the season,” Ekitike said about Liverpool’s set-piece struggles. “We’ve all talked about it and worked on it together in training. It’s great to see it paying off now. We deserved it; honestly, we’ve put a lot of work into this.”
Saturday was the first of seven huge games in just over three weeks. Liverpool were up 3-0 at halftime, but West Ham didn’t just roll over; they made Liverpool work for it in the second half, fighting to stay out of the relegation zone.
Talking to liverpoolfc.com, Ekitike said, “Scoring early in games like that helps, for the team and for the fans. You feel more confident. And going in at halftime 3-0 up, that’s always good.
“But they showed it’s not over till it’s over, they fought back, and we let a couple in. When that happens, you have to score more, and we did. We got five.
“We’ve got to keep going, because there’s a long way left in the season. But yeah, I’m really happy. That win mattered.”
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