Former Manchester United and Everton star Wayne Rooney has defended his recent comments on Virgil van Dijk following the Liverpool captain’s heated response over the weekend. The ex-United and England skipper criticised Van Dijk’s body language last week in the Premier League defeat against Brentford.

Liverpool have struggled badly for much of the campaign, with Saturday's 2-0 win over Aston Villa ending a run of four straight league defeats for the reigning English top-flight champions. Arne Slot's side had lost six of their previous seven matches across all competitions before that win against Unai Emery's team.

And Rooney claimed Van Dijk has lacked leadership this season. In response, the Dutch centre-back said after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa that he felt the negative remarks were “lazy”.

“Well, I didn't hear him last year,” Van Dijk said, when asked about Rooney’s words. “It doesn't hurt me, to be honest, I feel like, just to come back to this particular player, and this obviously a legend, big player of...