Virgil van Dijk has said Wayne Rooney was guilty of “lazy criticism” when the former Manchester United captain blamed the Dutchman and Mohamed Salah for what he called a lack of leadership at Liverpool this season.
The defending champions had lost six of their last seven games in all competitions before Saturday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa, in which Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal.
But Van Dijk, while adamant he respects Rooney as a footballer, noted such accusations were not made last season when he skippered Liverpool to the title as he underlined how much he cares about their fortunes.
“I didn’t hear him last year,” said the centre-back. “It doesn’t hurt me. Just to come back to this particular player, obviously a legend, a big player of the game who inspired so many, I can say only positive things but I feel that comment is just I would say it’s a bit of a lazy criticism. That’s my personal opinion.
“I think it’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Because last year we didn’t hear anything about this, because obviously things were going well, and we were also seen as the leaders, and this year when things are not going as well as we want so far the last couple of weeks, then we’re not doing our job properly.
“So that’s the life we live. We feel that responsibility. We want to lead by example. Obviously I can only speak for myself in this case. I know I’m the captain, I know that if we have not the best results or not great performances, then myself and the manager will definitely always be questioned. That’s part and parcel, you know.
“And that’s what comes with it. I want to perform, not for myself, but for the team, for the club. That’s what I’ve been doing for all those years. I want to win things, I want to win games especially, and I’ve been very fortunate to win so many games with the club, especially here at home.
“And when there are difficult moments, I try to help my teammates. I try to put them in front of me and want to make them perform as in the best possible shape and then when things don’t go well then that’s the world we live in and people question loads of stuff, especially when you lose.”
Van Dijk said on Saturday night that there were some “ridiculous takes” about Liverpool’s loss of form. And he added: “How many did we lose? Six-and-a-seven, yeah. So you know, there are so many platforms nowadays that everyone can say whatever they like and it gets blown up.”
