Liverpool suffered a 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon, with Reds legend Wayne Rooney admitting he is concerned by Virgil van Dijk's comments
13:54, 23 Nov 2025Updated 14:16, 23 Nov 2025
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Aston Villa at Anfield on November 01, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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Liverpool are 11th in the Premier League table after their defeat to Nottingham Forest(Image: Carl Recine, Getty Images)
Wayne Rooney has confessed he is worried about Virgil van Dijk's remarks concerning his squad after Liverpool's crushing 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Arne Slot's team endured their sixth loss of the campaign, which already exceeds their total from last season's entire Premier League title-winning run by two defeats. Despite triumphing over Aston Villa and Real Madrid earlier this month with clean sheets in both fixtures, the Reds have now tumbled to consecutive losses.
Liverpool have secured victory in merely three of their previous 11 matches across all competitions and find themselves languishing in 11th place in the Premier League table. Reds captain Van Dijk confessed following the match that his side "were just not good", before rattling off numerous problems Liverpool are presently confronting - something that has left Rooney troubled.
Speaking about Forest capitalising on Liverpool's weaknesses, Rooney said on BBC's 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."
Virgil van Dijk and teammates of Liverpool look dejected
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Virgil van Dijk's team were well beaten by Nottingham Forest(Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Liverpool dominated the bulk of the possession in the defeat to Forest, with Slot's team enjoying 74% possession and registered 21 attempts compared to Forest's 15. The Reds also completed more than 400 more passes than their rivals.
Van Dijk was honest with his verdict on Liverpool's defeat to Forest, giving several reasons as to why the performance wasn't at the level he wanted, reports the Liverpool Echo.
"We concede too many easy goals," Van Dijk said in an interview with 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 triumph over Tottenham this afternoon, Liverpool will find themselves 11 points adrift of the league leaders with a busy festive fixture list to come over the next few weeks.