rewrite this title Florian Wirtz: Liverpool attacker disagrees with Virgil van Dijk’s ‘gave up’ criticism after Man City FA Cup rout

Liverpool attacker Florian Wirtz does “not agree directly” with captain Virgil van Dijk’s belief that they gave up in their FA Cup humiliation at Manchester City.

Reds boss Arne Slot also questioned Van Dijk’s criticism, claiming he “didn’t see players giving up” in the 4-0 quarter-final loss at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Slot and Wirtz were speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain – another daunting game for Liverpool with the in-form holders having scored 15 goals in their last four games.

Liverpool were 2-0 down at half-time at Man City, but conceded just five minutes after the restart, raising questions once again over their ability to handle setbacks.

Van Dijk said after the game on Saturday: “To come back from 3-0 is obviously very difficult here – but also you shouldn’t give up and that’s maybe, at a certain point, what happened.”

Asked about Van Dijk’s criticism ahead of the PSG clash, Wirtz said at a pre-match press conference: “I didn’t know about this, that he said this. But I think I would not agree directly because we still tried to create chances to turn the game around.

“Of course, when the game gets longer, and it is in the 80th minute, and you are 3-0 down, it is mentally difficult to go and go and go.

“We just tried to give our best in the game – also when it was 3-0 or 4-0. I think we also had a few chances then. This is not our standards that we lose 4-0 to City. We wanted to go through the round. Next year, we should go better and be better on the pitch.”

Slot was then questioned on Van Dijk’s comments, and he replied: “Sometimes in a game of football you want to do things in a certain way, but you are not able to for various reasons.

“But one of them can definitely be conceding goals when you think you are playing well and are in the game. Usually in football, moments that hurt you the most are just before half-time and just after half-time.

“Immediately after half-time, we conceded the third, then I saw indeed five minutes where it was too open, and players were struggling.

“The good thing for us was that after 4-0, City seemed to be okay with that, and we had constant ball possession – they were not able to create that much anymore.

“But I didn’t see players giving up in that part of the game, but I think it is also good for a captain to have a strong and firm reaction after a game like that.

“And hopefully it is not only immediately after the game, but we as a team can show a strong and firm reaction tomorrow evening.”

Slot admits PSG will run riot if Liverpool let standards slip again

Slot knows Liverpool are in for a pummelling at PSG if their performance drops like it did in the humiliating FA Cup exit to Manchester City.

A difficult second season under the Dutchman hit a new low on Saturday lunchtime as the reigning Premier League champions collapsed either side of half-time in an embarrassing 4-0 last-eight loss.

The Reds rode their luck at the Parc des Princes last term as they secured a 1-0 smash-and-grab last-16 first-leg win, but Slot knows a drop off akin to that seen at the Etihad Stadium will mean they are not so lucky in France this time.

“I can tell you, if we have the 20 minutes we had at City, if we have them tomorrow evening here, we will again concede four goals because these players over here know how to act if we are having 20 minutes like that,” the Liverpool manager said.

“It is a challenge for us to be from the first to the last second at the level we were at in the first 35 minutes (at City).

“If not, it’s going to be a really hard night again, like it was last year where we completely deserved to lose 4-0 over here or maybe more.

“But that’s the beauty of football. In the 85th minute we scored a goal and it was almost like this was a robbery.”

Wirtz insists players still believe in under-fire Slot

Away from Van Dijk’s comments, Wirtz insisted Liverpool’s players still believe in under-fire Slot.

The Dutchman won the Premier League during a dream first season at Anfield, but his future is being debated as his second campaign comes to a close.

Liverpool sit fifth in the standings after a strong start to their title defence ended abruptly, while any hope of domestic glory ended with Saturday’s 4-0 annihilation at Man City, which heaped pressure on head coach Slot.

Asked if Liverpool’s players were still playing for their manager, big-money summer signing Wirtz said: “Yes, of course. We are believing in the manager.

“The team should believe in the manager because they won the league last season.

“We had a lot of good games this season. We wanted it to be better, but it is what it is now.

“We still have things to play for and everything I can say is that we believe in the manager and try to get our best on the pitch tomorrow.”

He added: “I think we have shown this season already that we are good in big games and especially in Champions League games

“I think the last round against Galatasaray was not easy because they’re also a good team, so we believe in ourselves.

“We have a good group together with good characters and great players, also a good manager who tries to prepare us well for the game.

“We believe in ourselves. We know we have the second game at home. That is maybe an advantage, so we try to do our best, believe in ourselves and come first of all with a good result to Anfield.”

But as confident as Wirtz is of getting a positive result at the Parc des Princes, the 22-year-old knows anything less than their best will make for a painful evening.

“We need tomorrow 90 minutes with full energy and full commitment, otherwise we will have no chance,” he said.

“We need 90 minutes of being together as a team. Also in difficult moments, if we concede, we have to stick together and believe that we can win this game.

“I think on the weekend we tried too much at one point, so we were a little bit wild on the pitch. Yeah, so we have to fix that for the next game.”