Arne Slot says Liverpool have no chance against Paris St-Germain unless his side turns up for 90 minutes – after disagreeing with Virgil van Dijk’s comments about the team giving up.
Captain Van Dijk criticised his team-mates after last Saturday’s 4-0 capitulation against Manchester City in the FA Cup.
“You shouldn’t give up and that’s maybe, at a certain point, what happened,” said Van Dijk after Liverpool’s 15th defeat of the season.
The Reds are under pressure to bounce back when they face European champions PSG in the Champions League quarter-final first leg in the French capital on Wednesday (20:00 BST kick-off).
And Slot has warned his side they have to play much better or face another crushing defeat.
“I didn’t see players giving up, but I also think it is good from a captain that he has a strong and firm reaction,” Slot said at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday.
“This year we have been quite experienced in terms of negativity. This was a big one because it was a [FA Cup] quarter-final. It was a big loss against our rivals.”
Liverpool conceded four times inside 20 minutes either side of half-time against City.
“I can tell you if we have the 20 minutes we had at City tomorrow evening here, we will again concede four goals,” added Slot.
“So it is a challenge for us to be from the first to the last second at the level we were at in the first 35 minutes [against City].”
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