Van Gerwen struggled to motivate himself for Premier League this week: ''Sometimes it's quite boring''

Michael van Gerwen could not score any points during the ninth round of the Premier League Darts on Thursday night. Jonny Clayton beat him 6-5 in his opening game.

Van Gerwen recorded an average of just 89. In his interview with Viaplay afterwards, 'Mighty Mike' admitted he struggled to motivate himself this week.

''It was a mess, the sharpness wasn't there tonight. But this format demands it. At times, it's quite boring. I said that last year, and again now'', Van Gerwen said.

The six-time Premier League champion did not want to use that criticism as an excuse for his defeat. ''I always want to win, but today I did not have the right attitude and of course that is not good. I'm obviously fed up with losing, but I'm even more fed up with sitting here for 3.5 hours preparing for nothing.''

With the current format of Premier League Darts, seven matches are played on a night. Each time, the eight players work through a mini-tournament with a quarter-final, semi-final and final. As a result, players face each other multiple times during the competition. In the old format, players used to play only one match each per round of play.