Virgil van Dijk hits back at 'lazy' Wayne Rooney after pundit's leadership jibe

Anfield captain takes aim at England legend who criticised the Dutchman and his senior team-mate Mohamed Salah after Liverpool's recent Premier League defeat at Brentford

Virgil van Dijk has hit back at Wayne Rooney, describing his criticism of the Liverpool skipper as ‘lazy’. After the recent 3-2 defeat at Brentford, Rooney laid into Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.

The Manchester United legend accused them of lacking leadership this season and linked it with their lucrative contracts, saying: "This is a time when the manager and the leaders in the team need to figure it out very quickly. Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, they've signed new deals but I don't think they have really led the team this season."

But after Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal and Van Dijk played a key role in a clean sheet in the win over Aston Villa at Anfield, the Dutchman took aim at Rooney.

“I didn’t hear him last year,” said Van Dijk. “He’s obviously a legend, a big player of the game, inspired so many, I can say all the only positive things. But I feel that comment is just, I would say, a bit of a lazy criticism.”

It was a particularly cutting response from Van Dijk. Rooney had described Van Dijk as ‘lazy’ when Ousmane Dembele scored the only goal in Paris St Germain’s Champions League win at Anfield back in March.

And referring to Rooney’s role as a pundit - having unsuccessfully pursued a managerial career - Van Dijk added: “You have to do that job as well, so it is what it is. It's quite impossible when everyone, like I said, has an opinion and we have to deal with it.

"And there are no hard feelings, by the way. I don't take it personal whatsoever.

“It's easy to blame the older players but he (Rooney) knows obviously as well as everyone else that we do it together. We try to help each other to try to get out of this and, like I said, last year when things go well, you don't hear that at all.”

Rooney has not been the only pundit to criticise Van Dijk, who, like Salah, signed a new two-year deal towards the end of last season. But the Anfield skipper said he has been able to deal with the scrutiny.

He explained: “There are so many platforms nowadays that everyone can say whatever they like. and get blown up. So, we have to stick together - focus on the task ahead, winning games.

"That's the only thing we can control. And it's not easy to do that for everyone, but for me, I'm mature enough and I have a very stable life that I will be able to do so.”

After ending their four-game run of Premier League defeats, Liverpool now turn their attention to Tuesday’s visit of Real Madrid in the Champions League. Van Dijk said: “We tried to go after Frankfurt (Liverpool beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 before the loss at Brentford) and it didn’t work out that well.

“But there’s another opportunity on Tuesday and that’s how you have to see it. There’s an opportunity to perform, to win a game against a very good opponent.

“I think it was just a good performance (against Villa). But it was just a win and now we move on. We know there's still a lot of work to do and now it's time to recover and focus on a very big game."