The captain has plenty to say, just not yet

Virgil van Dijk has made clear he is not done with the Manchester City verdict. Not by a long way. The Liverpool skipper confirmed he will share his views publicly once the appeals process has run its course through the Premier League's independent commission, and given his meticulous choice of words on the subject, it sounds like those views will be worth hearing.

For now, though, Van Dijk is keeping the powder dry. "It's still a little bit ongoing so I don't think it's smart for me to comment on it right now," he said. "But when the verdict comes out I will definitely have my opinion and I will probably share it as well." He also revealed he had spoken privately with some City players about the ruling during the international break, though he was clear that going public at this stage was not something he was willing to do. A captain's restraint, but not a captain's indifference.

City were found guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League charges last month, including setting up contracts that artificially inflated their commercial revenue by close to £900 million between 2009 and 2018. They have since appealed, triggering a 12-week review by a fresh three-person panel. The implications for the period in which City pipped Liverpool to the Premier League title by a single point, twice, are not lost on anyone inside Anfield. Van Dijk addressed that directly: "Does the news change how I viewed that period? No, because I really enjoyed our rivalry and it was a great rivalry on the pitch. What happened off the pitch, that is for others to find a conclusion on."

The red card that flipped the afternoon on its head

The backdrop to all of this was a 3-0 home defeat that left Van Dijk and everyone else in the ground needing answers. Liverpool had been holding their own before Ryan Gravenberch was sent off by referee Chris Kavanagh for two bookable offences shortly after the hour mark. Within six minutes of that decision, Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku had turned the match, and Rayan Cherki added a third to leave Andoni Iraola with his first defeat as Liverpool manager.

"I think it was an even game up until the red card," Van Dijk said. "The early goal after the red card changed the whole game, that's just the fact. Was it a red? That's for others to decide." He also pointed to the atmosphere around the dismissal, noting that Araujo had received a yellow card for the simple act of asking for one, while other flashpoints involving City players went unpunished. He was careful not to lean on it as an excuse, though. "We went down to 10 men and conceded pretty quickly after that and then it's a very tough one."

Van Dijk's frustration was plain. "Losing 3-0. Against Man City. At home." Three short sentences that said everything. But he was equally clear that the mood needs to shift fast, with the Champions League trip to LASK arriving on Wednesday. "The Champions League away at LASK people might think is an easy one," he said. "It isn't. We have to focus quickly, recover and be back on it."

A calf knock and a question about rest

Van Dijk also addressed his own physical situation, revealing he picked up a painful knock to his calf late in the match and was heading home for treatment. At 35 and in the final year of his contract, questions about rotation and workload are inevitable, especially with eight matches between now and 8 November. His response was vintage Van Dijk.

"Do you think I want a rest?" he said. "Obviously it's not a given I'm starting but I'm doing everything in my power to be ready. If I'm fit and ready to play I want to play." He made clear the manager's call will always be the manager's call, but there was no ambiguity about where the captain himself stands on being left out. The man wants to play.

The City verdict, the red card, the heavy home defeat and a calf complaint all landing in the same weekend shows the kind of weight Van Dijk is carrying right now. How he and his teammates respond in midweek will say a great deal about where this Liverpool side is headed.