Virgil van Dijk has called for patience from Liverpool fans, admitting he could sense nervousness from the crowd following their 1-1 draw with Leicester on Wednesday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side failed to beat a side outside of the top six for the first time this season after the Foxes battled back to claim a point at Anfield in snowy conditions.
And throughout the game Liverpool players were met with anxious groans from the crowd – who were desperate for them to grasp their opportunity to go seven points clear at the Premier League summit following Manchester City’s loss to Newcastle 24 hours earlier.
Asked if he could sense the anxiousness during the game, Van Dijk said: “It sounded like it.
“I don’t think [it transmits to the players] but obviously you get that feeling as well from the crowd and I think it’s not really necessary at the moment.
“But obviously everyone wants to win so bad and that’s what we want as well but sometimes you need to be very patient.
“In the end it’s all about showing on the pitch and we’re not going to be affected by that.
“[But] we want everyone to cheer us on and keep pushing even if we have tough moments, even if we’re 1-0 down or maybe more.
“We just need everyone to pull in the same direction and keep going, that’s the only way forward.”
Van Dijk’s words echo those of Rio Ferdinand, who believes the crowd’s nerves DID feed into the players.
“You don’t want to see nerves at this stage, this is early,” the former Manchester United defender said.
Despite knowing City lost, the the Reds’ record signing insisted players are only focused on what they can do on the pitch.
“That’s not something that we focus on. That [City] lose is obviously not good for them but it’s obviously good for us for the title race,” he said.
“But there are so many games left, anything can happen and you see [that] today against a good side.
“We tried to break them down, especially the last 20 minutes, but it didn’t work out.
“We were just preparing for the game and this morning we trained and nobody talked about it. We just focused on our game and it was a very tough game.”
Liverpool’s next match comes against West Ham on Monday at the London Stadium.