Wayne Rooney makes pointed Virgil van Dijk comment after Liverpool captain criticises teammates

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Wayne Rooney has expressed his concern on Virgil van Dijk's remarks about his teammates in the aftermath of Liverpool's 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest . Arne Slot's side have now suffered their sixth loss of the campaign - already surpassing the total from their entire Premier League title-winning season last term.

Despite clean-sheet victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid earlier in the month, the Reds have now endured consecutive defeats. Liverpool have secured just three wins from their last 11 fixtures across all competitions and currently sit 11th in the top-flight standings.

Reds' captain van Dijk confessed after the match that his side "were just not good" - before highlighting several problems Liverpool are grappling with. And it's those comments which have left Rooney worried.

Discussing how Forest capitalised on Liverpool's vulnerabilities, TV pundit Rooney told Match of the Day: "Yeah, they did. I think that's a concern when your captain is speaking like that - about the players lacking fight and not winning second balls and winning the challenges.

"But if we look here at how Nottingham Forest prepared themselves against Liverpool. They allowed Liverpool to come on to them early on and they were sucking Liverpool into traps all afternoon."

Liverpool dominated much of the game, with Slot's team enjoying 74 per cent possession as they registered 21 attempts compared to Forest's 15. The Reds also completed over 400 more passes than their visitors.

However, crucially for Sean Dyche's team, their shots found the back of Liverpool's net. Van Dijk gave an honest assessment of Liverpool's current struggles after the loss to Forest - where he admitted the team's performance was not up to standard.

"We concede too many easy goals," Van Dijk told Sky Sports .

"In the first half an hour we were good, we created good opportunities. They scored, obviously, from a set-piece again.

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"You can yourself if he was in front of Alisson, but it counted so we were 1-0 down.

"Overall I think we were just not good in terms of battles, challenges, second-ball fights. We were too rushed.

"It's a very difficult situation at the moment. A tough day."

If Arsenal beat Tottenham on Sunday afternoon, Liverpool will be 11 points off the league leaders. The Reds face West Ham next weekend at the London Stadium.

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