Virgil van Dijk knows that Liverpool's critics will think that the world is sinking, but he has encouraged his Reds teammates to win the biggest prize for them -the Premier League title.
The side of Arne Slot lost the Carabao Cup final on Sunday from Newcastle to conclude a horror week in which they were also dumped by PSG from the Champions League.
The hope of Liverpool to win three trophies is over, but they are still no less than 12 points clearly at the top of the Premier League table with nine games.
That means that a record-similar 20th League title is at a moving distance and Captain Van Dijk has called on his team to get over the line as quickly as possible.
He said: “We have to turn this around. It is how football works: in five days you lose twice and sinks the world, a kind of how to say it, and two weeks before everything was, you know, sunshine and rainbows everywhere.
“We all have to realize that the work has not been done for what we have. We have to work our ass [off] Everyone must realize for that. '
Liverpool's heartache in the cup matches can be seen as further motivation to ensure that there are no slip -ups in the last consecutive of the Premier League title race.
But Van Dijk said: “Yes, but for me personally there should be no extra motivation. You play for the biggest prize for which you work so hard from the start of the season, when no one expected that we would be a challenge for, in the first place, the Premier League, one of the biggest prizes, and then on the side of all other trophies.
“It is clear that the Champions League could not get it, we lost this and the FA Cup that we were eliminated. We have nine games to go and I don't think a motivation is needed to try to get the job done.
“What is needed is that we have to realize that there is hard work and still a task to do. Each of us, including the boys who may not play that much, boys from the team or the young boys, our fans, so nine games to go. “
Van Dijk does not believe that the Reds no longer have steam after their sizzling start of the campaign. They ran away with the competition title and are at the top of the Champions League group phase. It had many believed that Liverpool would win several trophies this season.
When asked if the season caught them in, Van Dijk said: “No, I don't think so. I think it is easy to say because we are in or out in a decisive season and the last two games that you are in or out.
'You win or you lose. It was very disappointing to be beaten out of the Champions League, as we all saw after the game. We gave it everything, unfortunately it wasn't enough, and today it was just disappointing in so many ways.
“We might still have had a draw, but I think they deserved it and that is the disappointing part.”
Liverpool now breaks out for the internationals before they return against Everton in a Merseyside Derby in Anfield on 2 April.
Van Dijk added: “If you just think about it, it is only nine games to go. I don't know how much, with fast math, it is within a few minutes, but if you realize that if you win five games – that is of course a very difficult job – you will become the champion of England.
“If you keep these things in your head, it can also benefit you because you work hard, to continue in difficult moments, because I can now guarantee that all those games we need, there will be so many difficult moments and if you are willing to suffer, whether it is 1-0, 2-0, whatever, you have to see the end and every day.”
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