Virgil van Dijk insists Liverpool must be hard on themselves after shocking 7-2 Aston Villa defeat

Virgil van Dijk insists he and his Liverpool team-mates must be hard on each other following their humiliating 7-2 defeat by Aston Villa, though highlighted the importance of sticking together.

After a perfect start to the season, Liverpool followed up a disappointing Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Arsenal with a stunning defeat against Villa, who maintained their own 100 per cent record to move second in the table.

Liverpool looked defensively suspect in a 4-3 win over Leeds in their season opener and were once again carved open on Sunday night, with Villa signing Ollie Watkins netting his first-ever Premier League goal before going on to get a first-half hat-trick.

Van Dijk admitted he couldn't understand what went so wrong for Liverpool during the match, but insisted the group must rally to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"It's hard to lose the way we lost tonight," he told Sky Sports. "First and foremost well done to Aston Villa, we have to give them the credit they deserve.

"If we are looking at ourselves, it was one of those performances where we weren't 100 per cent at it from start to finish.

"The goals we conceded we should have done, but also the chances that we had, we should have done better. Overall we're all very disappointed, we shouldn't have lost with the numbers that we did but it's key to stick together and making sure it doesn't happen again.

"You can't take the credit away from Aston Villa, but we should have been more clinical. In all aspects of the game we should have done much better. We have to be very hard on each other, and we will be.

"It's important not to get crazy but we've got to step it up and the performance level between the Arsenal league win and today was too big. Everyone must take responsibility."

Liverpool were without key players Sadio Mane, Alisson Becker and new signing Thiago Alcantara against Villa, but Van Dijk refused to pin the result on absences.

"We prepared well and we played a good game against Arsenal in midweek," he said. "Our preparation was good and we were ready for it before the game.

"Unfortunately, in the game it didn't happen how we wanted it to."

Liverpool will have to dwell on the result for the best part of two weeks, with the international break now arriving.

They return to Merseyside on October 17, when a mouth-watering clash with league leaders Everton at Goodison Park awaits.

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