After a disappointing 3-2 loss to Brentford, Liverpool have now suffered four straight defeats in the Premier League. The match was filled with controversy \u2014 from a free-kick turning into a penalty to another penalty shout being waved away \u2014 but what really caught fans\u2019 attention was the apparent tension between Milos Kerkez and Virgil van Dijk, with many supporters convinced the captain has \u201chad enough\u201d of his defensive partner.<\/p>\n
Liverpool appeared to have rediscovered their form earlier in the week after thrashing Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1, but their domestic struggles clearly persist. Away at the Gtech Community Stadium against Keith Andrews\u2019 Brentford, the Reds produced another uninspired display.<\/p>\n
Despite several flashpoints throughout the game, Liverpool fans were fixated on the interactions between Van Dijk and Kerkez. Even though the Hungarian fullback redeemed himself with a goal after an early error, Van Dijk was visibly frustrated with him \u2014 sparking questions about their relationship.<\/p>\n
Van Dijk found himself at the center of a second-half penalty incident that proved costly for Liverpool, capping off a forgettable night for the Dutchman. His visible anger toward Kerkez didn\u2019t go unnoticed, with fans on social media commenting things like, \u201cVan Dijk is done with Kerkez.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerkez, who joined from Bournemouth after an impressive season, was expected to be Andy Robertson\u2019s long-term successor. However, his time at Anfield has gotten off to a rocky start. Against Brentford, an early booking and several poor decisions both in attack and defense appeared to test Van Dijk\u2019s patience.<\/p>\n
Many Liverpool fans believe the captain\u2019s frustrations stem from the team\u2019s poor run and Kerkez\u2019s inconsistency. As one fan put it, \u201cIt\u2019s so obvious Van Dijk doesn\u2019t like Kerkez at all.\u201d Whether the issue is purely professional or something deeper remains unclear, but supporters will be hoping the pair can move past any tension and help Liverpool get back on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a disappointing 3-2 loss to Brentford, Liverpool have now suffered four straight defeats in the Premier League. The match was filled with controversy \u2014 from a free-kick turning into a penalty to another penalty shout being waved away \u2014 but what really caught fans\u2019 attention was the apparent tension between Milos Kerkez and Virgil …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":52929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/virgil-van-dijk.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52930,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928\/revisions\/52930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}