Andoni Iraola left the 35-year-old on the bench for the trip to Austria, pairing Ronald Araujo and Jeremy Jacquet at centre-back.<\/p>\n
The pairing helped Liverpool race into a 4-0 lead, with Araujo heading the opener, Bradley Barcola scoring twice before half-time, and Jeremie Frimpong adding a fourth early in the second half.<\/p>\n
At the 62-minute mark, with the game seemingly settled, Iraola brought on Van Dijk and Joe Gomez.<\/p>\n
Within a minute, Robert Ljubi\u010di\u0107 pulled one back. Florian Flecker then scored twice in quick succession, in the 74th and 77th minutes, completing three concessions in roughly 15 minutes of the Dutchman\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n
Barcola completed his hat-trick and Lewis Koumas added a sixth, but the late goals have overshadowed the margin of victory.<\/p>\n
Fan reaction has been harsh and pointed. \u201cVVD IN 2026 \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d conceded 3 against LASK as soon as he came on,\u201d one supporter wrote.<\/p>\n
Another stated: \u201cLiverpool had conceded 0 goals in 60 minutes before Virgil van Dijk came on. They conceded 3 goals in 18 minutes vs LASK after he entered the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third declared, \u201cVirgil van Dijk is lowkey the problem of Liverpool. He came in and Liverpool conceded three goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further comments were equally blunt: \u201cVirgil Van Dijk you need to bow down in shame for conceding 3 against LASK,\u201d and \u201cwe really need a manager with balls to drop Alisson & VVD.\u201d<\/p>\n
One fan summarised the sequence: \u201cIraola paired Ronald Araujo and Jacquet today and they looked perfect until after 60 min\u2026 He decided to sub them for Gomez and VVD and they conceded 3 goals from LASK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pattern has reinforced calls for continued rotation. Several outlets awarded Van Dijk marks of 4 or 5, noting his relative slowness and the loss of organisation after he entered.<\/p>\n
With Liverpool still adjusting under Iraola and facing a demanding run of fixtures, a section of the support now argues that the long-serving captain is holding the defence back rather than leading it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"