The Reds’ captain pointed to Darwin Nunez’s shocking miss from six yards as a key moment in the hard-fought draw at Villa Park.
Nunez’s wayward effort revived memories of Ronnie Rosenthal’s infamous miss in the same fixture over 30 years ago when he struck the crossbar with the goal at his mercy.
Van Dijk said: “We are a bit disappointed but we fight. We had chances to win the game, took a bit of a risk at the end - so it got more open at times.
“In possession we did quite well, created good opportunities to score the second. Disappointing to concede from a set-piece. We tried everything and unfortunately it wasn't enough for three points
"We should have scored 3-2, but credit to Aston Villa, they made it very difficult. We have a very tough one on the weekend again, then we play Newcastle, our focus now will be on Man City, a very difficult game, we know that.
“We have done everything in our power to win games - and the focus will be that on Sunday."