Virgil van Dijk responds to questions over Liverpool’s resilience after late Nottingham Forest win

Virgil van Dijk believes Liverpool have provided an answer to everyone who has questioned their resilience this year.

The captain admitted his side were very poor in the opening 45 minutes of Sunday’s game at Nottingham Forest, but their eventual win, courtesy of Alexis Mac Allister’s 97th-minute goal, means they have only lost twice in their last 20 matches in all competitions.

And Van Dijk feels Liverpool have shown their toughness as, in their last two league matches, they have ended Sunderland’s unbeaten home record and then beaten Forest in Vitor Pereira’s first match in charge at the City Ground.

He said: “I think the resilience has definitely been questioned at times this season but I think today and the last couple of games especially, we have shown a consistency in everything we do, apart from the first half today.

“I think this just confirms that football is not played over 45 minutes where we were very poor in the first half. In the second half we completely turned it around, I think we were much more comfortable on the ball and made the right decisions with and without the ball.

“We won the ball a lot higher up the pitch and defending in our box was very good today, in my opinion, but we were a little on the lucky side today with the goal at the end but that is football as well.”

Van Dijk also thought Liverpool showed their mental strength in their response to seeing a goal by Mac Allister ruled out, just before the game went into injury time, and going to score a decider, again through the Argentinian.

“When the goal is disallowed, the momentum shifts and the [Forest] fans are fully behind it, they may believe this is the opportunity to bounce back after a little bit of disappointment they had,” he added. “But I think we did well, we created the chaos with the throw-ins we had and we managed to score the winner.”