Virgil Van Dijk: Liverpool defender sends title warning to Man City ahead of next season as Liverpool lost the nail-biting Premier league race last night.
Liverpool lost the Premier league title by one-point to Manchester City as the Citizens secured the title by thrashing Brighton by 4-1 last night.
However, it did not stop Virgil Van Dijk to make a statement against their competitors and admitted that he would sacrifice his PFA player of the year award in exchange for the Premier league title.
“Player of the Year is a big honour, a huge honour, but I would swap it immediately for the Premier League title.” Van Dijk said.
Initially, it seemed that Liverpool might pull the race when Sadio Mane gave a one-goal lead to Liverpool against Wolverhampton Wanderers to make them sit at the top of the table for a brief period of time, while Manchester City were trailing.
However, a minute later equalizer by Sergio Aguero motivated his teammates to score another as Aymeric Laporte found the net after receiving a pin-point cross by Riyad Mahrez.
Further, added goals by Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan sealed the title for Manchester City, while Liverpool did whatever they could do last night.
Thus, it broke the hearts of all the Kopites after they missed to win the title even after coming very close to it. Although, later Van Dijk gave a bold challenge to the champions for the next season race.
“It doesn’t mean it is all over. We take a lot of things with us, we will take this on, and hopefully we can challenge next year and do even better,” he further said.
Further, the player expressed his emotions after losing out on the title by just one-point to Manchester City, even after performing exceptionally throughout the season.
“Frustrated is the right word, I think we are all going to be a little disappointed because we are so close,” he said.
“To get 97 points, to play football like we have played all season, we have to be very, very proud.
“There will be other opinions, but we work so hard every day to be challenging to be as close as possible…it’s just that City were just a tiny little bit better than us, and that’s football as well. Congratulations to City, they deserved it by one point. And it was a great title race, and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.” the Premier league player of the year said.
Furthermore, the player spoke about Liverpool’s preparation for the Champions league final against Tottenham and how his team need to shift their focus on it.
Nevertheless, Jurgen Klopp’s side has been phenomenal this season and defeated all the odds against them and gave a thrilling Premier league contest till the very end.
How twitter reacted
There is real pain for Virgil van Dijk at missing out on the title – but he believes this is only the start for #LFC: “It doesn’t mean it is all over. We take a lot of things with us, we will take this on, we can challenge next year and do even better." https://t.co/e9I9lC7Xwv
— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) May 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/INTP__/status/1127934249364074496
Frustration ✔️
Pride ✔️@VirgilvDijk reflects on #LFC's Premier League season…https://t.co/i6kQitCIK4— Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) May 13, 2019
Liverpool Echo: Virgil van Dijk's classy message to Man City as Liverpool defender gives title race verdict https://t.co/8s5FIL8lG1 #lfc #ynwa pic.twitter.com/AsZyvQOvXW
— Liverpool News 365 (@iLiverpoolApp) May 13, 2019
What next?
Liverpool will clash against Tottenham in the Champions league finale on 1st June at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.