Virgil van Dijk insists Liverpool’s spirit remains intact despite a damaging 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth that has further undermined their push for Champions League qualification.

Arne Slot’s side arrived on the south coast on a 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions, buoyed by a convincing European victory in Marseille. Yet their domestic form has stuttered. A sequence of four consecutive league draws had already slowed momentum, and this loss leaves them with only four points from a possible 15 in the Premier League, well adrift of leaders Arsenal and locked in a scrap just to secure a top-four finish.

At the Vitality Stadium, Liverpool’s problems were laid bare in dramatic fashion. Bournemouth surged into a two-goal lead, exploiting defensive uncertainty in difficult, swirling conditions. Van Dijk misjudged a long ball for Evanilson’s opener, then played Álex Jiménez onside for the second while Liverpool were temporarily down to 10 men as Wataru Endo waited to replace the injured Joe Gomez.

Van Dijk pulled one back on the stroke of half-time, and Dominik Szoboszlai’s fierce strike 10 minutes from time appeared to have salvaged a point. Instead, Amine Adli struck with virtually the final kick, capitalising on a long throw that Liverpool failed to clear.

Van Dijk, speaking to the club’s media, rejected any suggestion that the setback reflected a fractured dressing room.

“I don’t think there’s any question about our togetherness,” the captain said. “But the consistency that we’re looking for, that’s something that still needs to be found. That’s the reality.”

He acknowledged the volatility of external reaction to Liverpool’s form, contrasting the praise after Marseille with the criticism that followed the defeat at Bournemouth. “We know how it works and three days later you lose a game like we did and the other side of the world comes out. That’s something we have to deal with. We want to perform, we want to win games and it didn’t happen unfortunately.”

Van Dijk also defended his own performance, arguing he had been impeded for Adli’s winner. “What I felt on the pitch was that I was clearly blocked, but obviously the ref and VAR don’t give it and that’s something we then have to accept.”

He admitted the conditions and Liverpool’s brief spell with 10 men contributed to the chaos but did not excuse it. “To concede those two goals in a short period is obviously not good at all,” he said, underlining that consistency, not unity, is Liverpool’s most pressing concern.