Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk addressed Wayne Rooney\u2019s public criticism face to face after Tuesday night\u2019s match. The meeting followed a composed 1\u20130 Champions League win over Real Madrid, Liverpool\u2019s second in succession, and came while Van Dijk was appearing among Amazon Prime Video\u2019s pundits alongside the retired England international.<\/p>\n
Rooney had earlier recorded the latest episode of his podcast from his spare room and vowed to \u201cstick by\u201d his comments that suggested Van Dijk\u2019s form had dipped following the new two-year deal he signed last season. The pair were brought together on air and the exchange was calm but direct.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you would watch games then I would definitely take responsibility,\u201d the 34-year-old began. \u201cI think the comment that I signed my new deal and then that\u2019s it, I\u2019d let it slide, I think that was a bit…\u201d he said, trailing off, \u201cbut that\u2019s my personal opinion and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of Van Dijk\u2019s appearance was measured. \u201cIn a world of chaos you have to try and stay calm. I think at times the noise was a lot,\u201d he said, and added: \u201cIt is over the top at times.\u201d He went on to warn about the amplification of criticism, saying, \u201cWe live in a world with so many platforms and so many people that can say stuff which will be picked up and made bigger than what it is. Ex-players that played at the highest level dealt with difficult moments as well to put it into perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney smiled through the interview and conceded some restraint. \u201cI\u2019m not saying anything no more because I think I\u2019ve spurred them on,\u201d he laughed. He then stood by his analysis while acknowledging the response from the team: \u201cNo, I think what I\u2019ve said is fair. When you win the Premier League and you go on a run where you lose three-four games in a row, that you don\u2019t expect from Liverpool over the last few years and then Virgil, as you were the captain, I think that\u2019s your opportunity to go and lead the players, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m saying. I think that happens in football and I think the response has been great from Virgil, from the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exchange ended with handshakes and a light note from host Gabby Logan: \u201cI think that\u2019s all good, I think that\u2019s a truce there, he\u2019ll probably come on your podcast now.\u201d Rooney reflected after Van Dijk left: \u201cWhat\u2019s really refreshing is he didn\u2019t have to come up here,\u201d and added, \u201cHe\u2019s come up here and faced it. It\u2019s obviously a lot easier when you win.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk faced Wayne Rooney on air after Liverpool’s Champions League win and rebutted his critique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1006,1047,1215],"class_list":["post-4272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-captaincy","tag-champions-league","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}