Slot responds to van Dijk's 'lack of fight' comments

Virgil van Dijk said after Liverpool's loss to Nottingham Forest, that his side lacked fight in duels

Transcript

00:00A few stats recently about the team losing individual duels and sort of off the ball there, they're struggling.

00:09What do you put that down to? Is there a lack of fight from the players?

00:15We had Virgil on Saturday questioning players saying they need to take more responsibility and they need to be up for a fight.

00:21Have you lost that ability to fight teams?

00:25No, no we haven't.

00:26But in moments of games we have lost too many duels, so I think the last game we've played we had 75% ball possession,

00:36that means you only have to defend 25% of the time, and I think in and around our box we only had to defend four times.

00:43So yeah, it's not a thing that we don't, over 90 minutes, we are not ready or we're not defending well enough,

00:49we are not as switched on as we should be.

00:52So maybe the answer is less ball possession, because that's what we had against Real Madrid and that's what we had against Villa,

01:00both of the games we won.

01:04So no, I don't think it's a general thing, otherwise you cannot control or dominate the game, we do,

01:10if you don't win enough duels.

01:12But in moments we have to defend better, because City was the same, although City was the better team in the first half.

01:20They didn't create that much, but the few times they did create we were lacking intensity in our duels.

01:28We didn't make them have to defend so far there.

01:30We didn't make them have to defend right, as well.

01:34Let me show you how we can do it, but...

01:36We should have to defend it, but I think there was a big challenge of having a partner in the future.

01:40So there was a possibility.

01:42We should be Lucy.

01:44I think it was a big challenge.

01:46Thank you so much for looking forward, but for the next,

01:48you know how to play and have a great challenge.

01:50You know how to watch it, right, huh?

01:52And we'll be happy, because that's nice and fun.