Van Dijk admits Liverpool were 'very poor' in win over Leicester

Virgil van Dijk felt Liverpool came out 'very badly' in a 2-1 Premier League win over Leicester City at Anfield.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall capitalized on a faltering Reds defense to give the Foxes an early lead, but Wout Faes handed the Reds a fourth straight win on Friday.

The Leicester centre-back scored two own goals in the first half to give Jurgen Klopp's side a victory that puts them just two points behind fourth-placed Tottenham in the battle for qualification in the Champions League.

Liverpool were not at their best, with Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah wasting away in front of goal.

Reds centre-back Van Dijk offered a candid assessment of performance in their final game of 2022, which was attended by new signing Cody Gakpo on Merseyside.

The Dutch defender told Sky Sports: "We were very poor today, but it's just good to get the three points, very important to win these kind of games, that's the positive.< /p>

"Now we need to recover, improve and prepare for Brentford [Monday]. We tried to get into the game, it wasn't good enough and we all know that. There are a lot of things that we need to improve."

He added: "Sometimes maybe we were too fast and then we lose the ball and it's a bit too open, and they can play, but we have to take the three points and move on."

Liverpool enter 2023 in sixth place with momentum after a disappointing start to the season.