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Virgil van Dijk criticised Liverpool’s attackers and the team’s performance as a whole after the surprise 1-0 defeat to Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Jurgen Klopp’s men started brightly and should have been ahead after 15 minutes when Mohamed Salah won a penalty. However, the Egyptian forward saw his spot-kick saved by Kasper Schmeichel and his rebound header hit the bar.

Sadio Mane also missed a couple of chances before the Reds were made to pay by the hosts. Former Everton forward Ademola Lookman scored the winner in the 59th minute.

It is only Liverpool’s second defeat of the season and leaves the Reds six points adrift of defending champions Manchester City, who have won nine games in a row.

Speaking afterwards, Van Dijk said: “I think they [Leicester] deserved the win but that was obviously also down to us. I think we were poor in the last third.

“A lot of crosses they defended well. Overall, not a good performance. They didn’t create much but looked dangerous on the break which they are good at.

“Credit to them. We have to look at ourselves and improve, which we will do. It’s part of football.

“We will keep trying until the very end. We created good chances but unfortunately today wasn’t the day it went in the back of the net. Penalty miss, which happens. But it’s disappointing.

“Obviously you don’t want to concede at all. We let [Ademola Lookman] get into space and unfortunately the goal went in.

“But we had moments we reacted and created chances to do better. You have to give them credit as well.”

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Van Dijk not giving up title hope

On the title race, Van Dijk added: “What can we say? We’re in December. The season is so, so long. Anything can happen.

“You have seen it with Covid and injuries – lots of things can change. There’s no point looking at [Manchester City] or Chelsea or the other teams around us.

“We should look at our performance today and improve. We all wanted to do better. That’s a fact. We weren’t good enough and they deserved the win.’

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