Anfield captain slams England legend for criticizing the Dutchman and his senior teammate Mohamed Salah after Liverpool’s defeat to Brentford in the Premier League
Virgil van Dijk has hit back at Wayne Rooney, describing his criticism of the Liverpool captain as “lazy”. After the recent 3-2 defeat against Brentford, Rooney was replaced by Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.
The Manchester United legend blamed a lack of leadership this season, which he combined with lucrative contracts, saying: “This is a time when the manager and the leaders of the team need to sort things out quickly. Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, they signed new contracts, but I don’t think they really led the team this season.”
But after Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal and Van Dijk played a key role in the clean sheet win over Aston Villa at Anfield, the Dutchman set his sights on Rooney.
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“I didn’t hear him last year,” Van Dijk said. “I can only say positive things because he’s obviously a legend and a great player in the game and he influenced a lot of people. But I think that comment is a bit of a lazy criticism, so to speak.”
Van Dijk’s reaction was particularly poignant. Rooney had previously described Van Dijk as “lazy” after Ousmane Dembele scored the only goal in Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League win at Anfield in March.
Van Dijk then referred to Rooney’s role as a pundit after unsuccessfully pursuing a managerial career, adding: “You have to do that job too, so that’s what it is. Like I said, it’s just not possible when everyone has an opinion and you have to deal with it.”
“By the way, there are no hard feelings. I don’t take it personal at all.
“It’s easy to blame the older players, but he (Rooney) obviously knows what we’re doing together, as does everyone else. We’re trying to help each other get out of this situation. And like I said, when things were going well last year, you didn’t hear any of that.”
Rooney is not the only critic to criticize Van Dijk. Van Dijk, like Salah, signed a new two-year contract at the end of last season. However, the Anfield captain said he was able to cope with the intense scrutiny.
“There are too many platforms now and everyone can say whatever they want and make a fuss about it. So we have to come together. We have to focus on the task at hand: winning the game.”
“That’s the only thing we can control. And it’s not easy for everyone to do that, but for me I’m mature enough and have a very stable life to be able to do it.”
After ending a four-game losing streak in the Premier League, Liverpool will now turn their attention to Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid. Van Dijk said: “We tried to chase Frankfurt (Liverpool beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 before losing against Brentford) but it didn’t work out.
“But we have another chance on Tuesday and how we should look at it. We have a chance to perform and win the game against a very good opponent.”
“I think it was just a good performance[against Villa]but we just won and now we move on. We know there’s still a lot to do and now it’s time to recover and focus on the big games.”
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