Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk brushed off criticism from Wayne Rooney after being called ‘lazy’ by the former Manchester United star.
Van Dijk, 33, was part of the Liverpool side beaten 1-0 at home on Tuesday night by Paris Saint-Germain, who then won a penalty shootout at Anfield to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Liverpool had won the first leg 1-0 in Paris six days earlier but Ousmane Dembele scored the only goal at Anfield.
Analysing that goal while working as a pundit for Amazon Prime, Rooney, 39, said: ‘This goal from Liverpool’s perspective is wrong in so many ways. They are trying to press the ball and Van Dijk gets lazy.
‘If you keep your eye on Van Dijk, he’s walking and leaves a massive gap to Dembele. All he has to do is come across and cover Dembele because there is no other pass for Paris to get out and he doesn’t.
‘Dembele gets it and he’s got a lot of space, gets the ball out wide and then [Ibrahima] Konate doesn’t switch on and then he reacts. Dembele makes a good run and gets a tap in.’
Virgil van Dijk was on the losing side on Tuesday night when Liverpool were beaten by PSG
Van Dijk (second right) pictured looking on moments before Ousmane Dembele (centre) scored
Amazon Prime pundit Wayne Rooney criticised Van Dijk and called the Liverpool captain ‘lazy’
In response, Van Dijk said on Friday: ‘Someone told me about this. I think at that particular moment I’m helping [Andy] Robertson, telling him to clear the outside. I take the inside.
‘I’m even explaining now what I thought at that moment, but if he thought it was lazy then he gave his opinion. That’s it.
‘There were so many challenges years ago for those players and, obviously, it’s a challenge for the players nowadays that you have to deal with opinions here and there and it gets blown up all the time.
‘Looking at what I see in the dressing room, the boys are doing well in terms of keeping their heads down and focusing on the task ahead. That’s the most important thing I want to see. No one’s going smooth sailing, especially if you’re in the Premier League.
‘If we get the reward for it at the end of the season then I’m sure Liverpool is going to be bouncing.’
Van Dijk was speaking ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, which will see Liverpool take on Newcastle United at Wembley.
A win for Liverpool would see manager Arne Slot claim his first piece of silverware with the Anfield outfit.
Meanwhile, Slot has enjoyed a remarkable debut campaign in the Premier League. Leaders Liverpool currently have a 15-point advantage over Arsenal in second place with little more than two months to go until the final day.
Van Dijk defended his positioning and said that he had been ‘helping’ Andy Robertson (left)
Captain Van Dijk has won eight trophies with Liverpool and could end the season with two more
It is not yet clear whether Van Dijk will stay at Anfield beyond this summer, with his current contract due to expire on June 30.
Since moving to Merseyside from Southampton for £75million in January 2018, Van Dijk has racked up 310 appearances for Liverpool and won eight trophies.
Sunday’s opponents have not won a major domestic trophy since the FA Cup in 1955.
Van Dijk added: ‘Newcastle didn’t win a trophy for [70 years] so there’s a lot of motivation there.
‘We obviously want to win so badly as well. It’s the first season together with the new regime and we want to show that we can win trophies.
‘If you were to lift the two trophies, I think you have a pretty good chance to be on a nice list of captains that have achieved great things in this club.
‘That’s obviously a big dream of mine since I became the captain of the club. We’re not there, we have a lot of hard work still to do.’
