Virgil van Dijk believes Liverpool have provided answers to anyone who questioned their resilience this year.
The skipper admitted his side had been woeful in the opening 45 minutes of Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest but eventually secured victory thanks to Alexis McAllister’s 97th-minute goal, meaning they have only lost twice in their last 20 games.
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Van Dijk believes Liverpool have shown their toughness by ending Sunderland’s unbeaten run at home in their last two league games and then beating Forest in Vito Pereira’s first game in charge at the City Ground.
Alexis Mac Allister scored Liverpool’s late winner at Nottingham Forest (PA Wire)
He said: “I think the toughness has definitely been questioned at times this season, but I think today, especially the last few games, we showed consistency in everything we did except in the first half today.
“I think it just proves that football games don’t last longer than 45 minutes and we were really poor in the first half. We completely turned it around in the second half and I think we were more comfortable with the ball and we made the right decisions both with and without the ball.”
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“In my opinion we won a lot of the ball on the pitch and defended very well in the penalty area today, but today we were a little bit lucky to score at the end, but that’s football too.”
Van Dijk also believed Liverpool showed their mental strength in their reaction after seeing Mike Allister’s goal ruled out before the game entered stoppage time and again scored the decisive goal through the Argentinian.
“When goals are denied, momentum shifts, [Forest] The fans are fully behind it, probably believing it’s an opportunity to bounce back after a bit of disappointment. ” he added. “But I thought we did a good job, we created chaos with the throw-in and we managed to get the winning goal. “
