Virgil van Dijk warns Liverpool team-mates 'the job is not done' in Premier League after Carabao Cup final loss
Published 17/03/2025 at 15:30 GMT
Many people believe that the Premier League title race is all-but over, with Liverpool currently 12 points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table. However, Virgil van Dijk insists that the job is not done yet. He has warned his team-mates not to get complacent at this crucial stage of the campaign. The Reds have suffered through a difficult week, losing in Europe and the Carabao Cup final.
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Virgil van Dijk warned his team-mates that the Premier League title race is far from over after Liverpool were beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
Goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak handed The Magpies their first major trophy since 1969, with Federico Chiesa scoring the only goal for Arne Slot's side.
Defeat capped a tough week for The Reds, who were also dumped out of the UEFA Champions League on penalties by Paris Saint-Germain.
They are still massive favourites to win the Premier League title after establishing a comfortable lead, but Van Dijk insists the job is not complete yet.
"We all have to realise the job is not done for what we have coming up," the Dutchman told The Guardian. "We have to work our a** [off] for it.
"Let’s hope [that winning the Premier League would make up for a tough week], but we can’t think about it like that. We have to turn this around.
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"It’s how football works: in five days you lose twice and the world is sinking, sort of how you can say it, and two weeks before everything was sunshine and rainbows everywhere."
The Gunners are Liverpool's closest title rivals, and they closed the gap to 12 points with a 1-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday.
Liverpool were also eliminated from the FA Cup by Plymouth Argyle earlier in the season, one of few downsides during a sensational first season at Anfield for Slot.
Van Dijk believes his side do not need any more motivation to get over the line in the Premier League.
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"You play for the biggest prize that you work so hard for from the start of the season when no one expected us to be challenging for, first and foremost, the Premier League, one of the biggest prizes, and then on the side of that all the other trophies," he added.
"The Champions League we couldn’t get it done, this we lost and the FA Cup, we got knocked out [at Plymouth].
"We have nine games to go and I don’t think there’s any motivation needed to try to get the job done."
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