{"id":26155,"date":"2025-11-05T01:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/unpleasant-moment-when-liverpools-virgil-van-dijk-hits-back-at-wayne-rooneys-criticism\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T01:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:57:23","slug":"unpleasant-moment-when-liverpools-virgil-van-dijk-hits-back-at-wayne-rooneys-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/unpleasant-moment-when-liverpools-virgil-van-dijk-hits-back-at-wayne-rooneys-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpleasant moment when Liverpool&#8217;s Virgil van Dijk hits back at Wayne Rooney&#8217;s criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/unpleasant-moment-when-liverpools-virgil-van-dijk-hits-back-at-wayne-rooneys-criticism\/#What_did_Virgil_van_Dijk_say_to_Wayne_Rooney\" >What did Virgil van Dijk say to Wayne Rooney?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/unpleasant-moment-when-liverpools-virgil-van-dijk-hits-back-at-wayne-rooneys-criticism\/#Wayne_Rooneys_reaction_to_Van_Dijk\" >Wayne Rooney&#8217;s reaction to Van Dijk<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk couldn&#8217;t help but criticize pundit Wayne Rooney a bit after his recent comments criticizing the Dutchman&#8217;s performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk has been a star player for Liverpool for many years, but he is one of the key players who has been struggling in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>It hasn&#8217;t been the best start to the season for the Reds, who previously had a dismal record of seven games and six losses, but they have bounced back a bit with two straight wins.<\/p>\n<p>Rooney recently singled out Van Dijk as a target of criticism on a BBC podcast, and the pair were featured on Amazon Prime Video, which broadcast last night&#8217;s match.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_did_Virgil_van_Dijk_say_to_Wayne_Rooney\"><\/span>What did Virgil van Dijk say to Wayne Rooney?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>After last night&#8217;s 1-0 Champions League win against Real Madrid, Van Dijk said some of the criticism he received had gone too far.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch international was standing right next to Rooney at the time, and the pundit used the opportunity to defend Rooney&#8217;s comments.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk also refused to back down, saying it was his personal opinion that Rooney&#8217;s comments went too far, so watch the somewhat awkward exchange below&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course, as a Liverpool player, if you lose four or five games in a row, that&#8217;s a valid criticism. In that sense it&#8217;s completely normal,&#8221; Van Dijk said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But at that point, I think sometimes it&#8217;s too much, but it&#8217;s because we live in a world where there are so many platforms and so many people can have a voice, and it&#8217;s going to be picked up and it&#8217;s going to be big.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s good that former players who played at the highest level and dealt with difficult moments will put a lot of things into perspective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Wayne_Rooneys_reaction_to_Van_Dijk\"><\/span>Wayne Rooney&#8217;s reaction to Van Dijk<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Rooney responded: &#8220;I think it was fair to say that when you win the Premier League and then you lose three or four games in a row, that&#8217;s something you wouldn&#8217;t expect from Liverpool over the last few years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool against Real Madrid (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Virgil is the captain so I think it&#8217;s his chance to lead the players and that&#8217;s what I was saying. That happens in football and I think the reaction from Virgil and the team has been great.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Van Dijk added: &#8220;If I had watched the game, I definitely would have taken responsibility. I think there was a bit of a comment that I signed a new contract and they were like, &#8216;That&#8217;s it&#8217; and just let it go&#8230; But that&#8217;s my personal opinion and we move on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk will no doubt be delighted that he silenced his critics last night with a strong performance that helped LFC secure a very impressive and important victory against one of Europe&#8217;s biggest clubs.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk couldn&#8217;t help but criticize pundit Wayne Rooney a bit after his recent comments criticizing the Dutchman&#8217;s performance. Van Dijk has been a star player for Liverpool for many years, but he is one of the key players who has been struggling in recent times. It hasn&#8217;t been the best start [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-26155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}