Van Gerwen ‘utterly gone’ after ‘shortchanging himself’ in Luke Littler loss

Vincent van der Voort has dished out some home truths about Michael van Gerwen‘s shocker at the World Series of Darts.

The darts legend he was trounced 11-4 by young gun Luke Littler. Despite playing on his own turf in Amsterdam, Van Gerwen seemed to have left his mojo in the locker room as Littler stormed through nine straight legs to snatch victory and cruise into the final.

There, the 17 year old darting sensation made short work of Michael Smith, pocketing a cool £80,000 for his troubles on his first swing at the tournament. Van der Voort, who’s tight with Van Gerwen, reckons the Dutch dynamo’s spark was MIA against Littler.

READ MORE: World Cup goal machine Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci dies aged 59 as Italy in mourning

Click for more of the latest football news from the Daily Star.

Talking with Sportnieuws.nl, he said: “Luke played really fantastic, he didn’t miss anything and then try to turn it around,” adding that “He just deservedly won. For Van Gerwen, there is just a lot of work to do.”

He admitted the World Series of Darts Finals might not be top of the pile when it comes to darts comps, but losing still stings, especially on home soil. “You just saw that Littler was still so fresh and fit and with Van Gerwen it was just completely gone.

What do you think of Michael van Gerwen’s slump in form? Let us know in the comments section below

“This tournament just took so much energy. We do have to take the good things from this tournament,” reports the Express. “We are in a process to make sure he is very, very good at the end of the year. Then we have to start looking at how we can address tonight’s fatigue so that in the future he won’t be so tired before a match like he was against Littler.”

Van Gerwen was quick to blame himself for his defeat to Littler after the match, saying: “Whether there was no spark against him? I don’t even want to say that yet. However, I started the match well and put him under pressure from the start.”

“At that point I was in the match very well, but then I come out of that break badly, I still win the first leg, but then I completely lose and report. That’s where I seriously shortchanged myself.”

“He then started playing better and better and with that my the irritation increased. I can blame myself for that. There is a very busy period coming up now and if I want to perform something there, this should not happen to me. I have to take this defeat on my chin already.”