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Virgil van Dijk has hit back at Wayne Rooney as he criticised the "absolutely ridiculous takes" of his side’s poor form. The Reds’ season had been plunged into crisis after six defeats from seven games in all competitions and four in a row in the Premier League. After the recent 3-2 defeat at Brentford, Rooney laid into Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah . He said: "This is a time when the manager and the leaders in the team need to figure it out very quickly. " Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, they've signed new deals, but I don't think they have really led the team this season." But speaking following his side’s 2-0 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday night , a game in which Salah scored his 250th goal for the Reds, the Dutchman took aim at Rooney. “I didn’t hear him last year," he said. "He’s obviously a legend, a big player of the game, inspired so many, I can say all the only positive things. But I feel that comment is just, I would say, a bit of a lazy criticism.” Van Dijk then added: “You have to do that job as well, so it is what it is. It's quite impossible when everyone, like I said, has an opinion and we have to deal with it. And there are no hard feelings, by the way. I don't take it personal whatsoever. “It's easy to blame the older players but he (Rooney) knows obviously as well as everyone else that we do it together ,trying to help each to try to get out of this and, like I said, last year when things go well, you don't hear that at all.” In a separate interview with TNT Sports, the centre-back said: “What I have noticed over the last couple of weeks especially is that there is a lot of noise that you have no control over and that we have to deal with as a team. “Some of those takes are absolutely ridiculous. But you have to deal with that. It’s outside noise that can reach certain players, the group. It’s about sticking together.” Before he added: “We’re not going out there on the pitch to lose games, we’re not going out there to be disappointed after games or leave fans disappointed going home, we want to work our socks off and win games. “But there’s no guarantee. You play in the Premier League , the highest level, in the biggest league in the world, and it’s difficult to stay calm but you have to do if you want to get back to where we want to be. "That’s up there. But that’s something for later in the season to look at. Now it’s time to keep working, never get too high, never get too low. "We live in a world now, for footballers at least, because that’s the only thing I can speak about, where everyone can have their opinion on so many platforms and everyone knows it better. We have to try to stay away from that and focus on the hard work we’ve been doing.”
