Virgil van Dijk and Wayne Rooney cleared the air at Anfield after Liverpool beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, a match that the Amazon Prime pundit was working at.
Arne Slot talks to Virgil van Dijk during a Liverpool match.
Arne Slot says it is "so clear" that Virgil van Dijk is the leader of Liverpool.
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Arne Slot has backed Virgil van Dijk after the Liverpool captain had his leadership questioned by Wayne Rooney. The former Everton and Manchester United player stated last month that he did not believe Van Dijk had truly led the Reds this season.
In response, the Liverpool skipper called the criticism "lazy", but Rooney continues to stand by his comments. They both then discussed their differences at Anfield after Tuesday's Champions League win over Real Madrid.
Rooney is still not backing down. However, he did concede that accusing Van Dijk of downing tools after signing a new contract was unfair.
Slot spoke about Van Dijk during his press conference on Friday, saying: "I've picked captains at my former clubs where the age of the players was much younger. Maybe not completely because they were already the leader of the team, but hoping that it could help them become a leader of the team.
"But with Virgil, it's so clear that he's the leader of this team. When you walk through the AXA [training centre], when we start the training session, you can hear him, you can feel he's our leader.
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"He's already been so important for this club for so many years, but I don't think I've had many captains who were so vocal, so loud as he is. He's been a very good captain for me, and since he became the captain of this club.
"He sets the bar at 10 out of 10 and when he has a nine out of 10 [performance], he sometimes gets criticised, too. I think other players will get compliments for a nine out of 10, but he gets criticised for that.
"He has had similar form to last season," Slot continued with Sky Sports. "But there were one or two moments this season where he could have done better defensively, and he got criticised by that straightaway. Maybe he should see it as a compliment - because that's where he set the bar from."
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