Wayne Rooney has one big regret from Van Dijk comments as Arne Slot piles on with brutal dig | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney must’ve wished he could be anywhere except at Anfield on Tuesday night!

The ex-Everton and Manchester United striker prompted a war of words with Virgil van Dijk in recent days after questioning the leadership qualities of the Liverpool captain, who duly hit back at the ‘lazy criticism‘, a public report that Rio Ferdinand absolutely loved.

The 40-year-old was on punditry duty with Amazon Prime Video Sport for the Reds’ Champions League win over Real Madrid, after which the Dutch defender was invited to the broadcaster’s pitchside desk and came face-to-face with the former England international.

Van Dijk and Slot face Rooney in on-air exchanges

Van Dijk duly let Rooney know in person that he felt some of the criticism was ‘over the top’ and challenged the notion that his motivation has declined since penning a two-year contract extension last April.

The ex-Man United striker jokingly replied: “I’m not saying anything more because I think I’ve spurred them on. We’ve put them on a winning streak!”, and he did acknowledge that Liverpool’s response since his initial barb at the Reds captain ‘has been great’.

Arne Slot then spoke to the Amazon Prime punditry team and proclaimed: “It’s nicer that you win games than if you lose games as a manager…am I right?”, with the Dutchman seemingly aiming the latter remark at Rooney in a cheeky dig at the 40-year-old’s less than stellar managerial record.

Image via Amazon Prime Video Sport

Liverpool have sprung to life since Rooney’s criticism of Van Dijk!

It should be noted that all of the on-air exchanges after the match last night were made in good faith, with everyone involved seemingly determined to draw a line under it and not let any hostilities linger.

Liverpool fans will have thoroughly enjoyed Rooney’s comment about inadvertently motivating the Reds to hit back from their October slump with fine wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid, as well as Slot’s friendly jibe about his managerial record with Derby, DC United, Birmingham and Plymouth Argyle.

While Van Dijk felt it necessary to address the initial remarks in public, he’ll have known that the best way to respond to the criticism was to put in stellar performances on the pitch, something that he and his teammates have done in their last couple of games.

The Reds’ task now will be to keep the momentum going with a positive result away to Manchester City on Sunday and to show that a corner has genuinely been turned, rather than the two wins in recent days being momentary relief from their previous malaise.

For now at least, Liverpool can feel immense satisfaction with how they’ve responded since Rooney’s ill-judged questioning of their captain.

You can view the full exchange between Van Dijk and Rooney below, via Amazon Prime Video Sport:

You can watch Slot’s full post-Real Madrid press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: