Wayne Rooney has reopened a public dispute with Virgil van Dijk, arguing that the Liverpool captain has become too distracted by external noise and that \u201cthere\u2019s something not right\u201d at Anfield. The increasingly outspoken pundit returned to the topic despite earlier suggesting he would stop after a brief exchange with van Dijk.<\/p>\n
With the towering Dutchman looming over his shoulder, Rooney joked that he was finished prodding at Liverpool\u2019s captain. That promise didn\u2019t last long. On The Overlap this week Rooney challenged Van Dijk\u2019s level of play. \u201cFrom a performance level, from what we\u2019ve seen from Van Dijk, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s been at that level this season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rooney questioned the captain\u2019s handling of the dressing-room response and private efforts to steady the squad. \u201cI said I\u2019m sure as captain he\u2019d be speaking to players, taking them out for food, which he said he has done. Clearly if he\u2019s felt he\u2019s done that, if he had to do that, there\u2019s something not right,\u201d Rooney added.<\/p>\n
He framed the concern in stark terms for the defending champions. \u201cAs champions, you can\u2019t lose four games in a row. If you lose one game, there\u2019s questions, and if you lose four in a row, there\u2019s something not quite right,\u201d Rooney continued.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old also criticised Van Dijk\u2019s involvement in outside commentary. \u201cI think getting involved too much in the outside noise\u2014that\u2019s our job [as pundits], focus on your game,\u201d Rooney sniffed. \u201cAs a younger player, I\u2019d be looking at Van Dijk and how he reacts to this\u2014how is it going to help them? You have to get on with your game and speak internally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney did acknowledge he may have overreached in past remarks about contractual security and standards. \u201cThey\u2019ve signed new deals but I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve really led that team this season,\u201d he said last month of Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah. \u201cThe one thing where I maybe went a bit too strong is where I said he\u2019s downed tools since he signed his new contract,\u201d Rooney admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s a big thing to say, and maybe I was wrong on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney renews criticism of Van Dijk, saying ‘there’s something not right’ at Anfield Rooney insists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1006,1215],"class_list":["post-4436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-captaincy","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436","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=4436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}