Virgil van Dijk snapped at Federico Chiesa in the closing stages of Liverpool’s shambolic 2-1 defeat to Wolves, and a report has confirmed why.

Liverpoolfailed to put one foot in front of the other without falling flat on their face at Molineux on Tuesday night.

It was the latest in a long line of humiliations for the reigning Premier League champions this season, though probably won’t be the last.

Both of Wolves’ goals were avoidable from a Liverpool perspective. The first saw Van Dijkall-too-easily nudged away from the ball in an aerial duel.

Ibrahima Konate inexplicably gravitated towards the situation, thus leaving Rodrigo Gomes in acres of space to charge towards goal and dink over Alisson.

Andre’s winner came through Alisson’s poor distribution, but again, that was only the beginning of the tale.

After the ball found its way to Andre, the Brazilian ambled towards Liverpool’s box at no great speed before his deflected shot wrong-footed Alisson and sealed Liverpool’s fate.

Barely a split-second passed between the ball crossing the line and a visibly angry Van Dijk launching a verbal volley in the direction of Chiesaand potentially Rio Ngumoha too.

According to the Liverpool Echo, it was Chiesa and Chiesa alone that Van Dijk vented his frustrations with. He was reportedly ‘left incensed’ at the forward and was ‘clear unimpressed at his efforts’.

Chiesa is a fan favourite at Anfield and while his opportunities are limited, he rarely fails to give maximum effort when he does take to the pitch.

Yet in the passage of play that led to Andre’s winner, Chiesa showed no urgency to close Andre down, barely breaking into a jog in a token effort to pressure the ball-carrier.

Van Dijk and Joe Gomez were both man-marking Wolves attackers, and could not leave their men behind to push up to Andre.

The end result saw Andre advance the ball a good 10 yards without being challenged, or even feeling the slightest hint of pressure.

Van Dijk reacted angrily to the mess that unfolded before him, twice throwing his arms in the air and shouting at the Italian winger, though in truth, that’s exactly how any good leader should respond when standards have slipped so alarmingly and those around him are failing at the basics.

And the fact it was Chiesa who let the side down – this is someone who practically saved Slot’s jobback in December with a remarkable goal-line clearance at the end of a lung-bursting run – sums up the malaise Liverpool find themselves in right now.

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