Liverpool news: Trent Alexander-Arnold reveals private messages as Virgil van Dijk fumes

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The victory precedes a mammoth week for Arne Slot's side, who welcome Real Madrid on Tuesday in the Champions League before taking on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium five days later.Mirror Football takes a look at the latest news coming out of Anfield, including Virgil van Dijk taking aim at critics, Trent Alexander-Arnold opening up about his Liverpool return, and Slot again being told he made a huge mistake in the transfer window.Van Dijk hits backThe Liverpool skipper was back on form in Saturday's win alongside his team-mates and the victory allowed the 34-year-old to get some thoughts off his chest, namely the criticism the champions have been subjected to this season.READ MORE: Virgil van Dijk made mockery of critics with moment in Liverpool's win over Aston VillaREAD MORE: Trent Alexander-Arnold reveals private texts from Liverpool stars ahead of Anfield returnWhile the victory ended the dismal run of four straight league losses, Van Dijk insisted the levels of judgement his side have had to take is "ridiculous" when asked just how difficult his role as the leader has been during their tough run of defeats.Speaking to TNT Sports, he 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 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.

Now it sounded like, by the outside world, we're going to be in the relegation battle, so that's how it works in the world."Trent Alexander-Arnold opens upThe former Liverpool defender is set to make his return to Anfield just five months after leaving for Real Madrid. I’ve got memories there that will last me a lifetime, and no matter how I'm received, that won’t change."He admitted that upon learning Madrid would travel to Anfield, he was contacted by several of his former Liverpool team-mates with their reunion to come to fruition.

Although they (Liverpool) haven’t had the results of late, they’re still a top footballing team, and nobody here thinks it’s going to be an easy game."Alexander-Arnold has long been a threat from set-pieces and scored several free-kicks for Liverpool but promised if he was to bag against his old club, he would not celebrate. While the winger enjoyed the best season of his Reds career last season with 17 goals across all competitions, both Diaz and Liverpool mutually agreed to his exit amid a £65million bid from Bayern Munich.The Colombian has set the Bundesliga alight with five goals and four assists in his first nine games and ex-Premier League midfielder Andy Reid criticised Arne Slot's decision to greenlight Diaz's departure."Liverpool have spent a hell of a lot of money and if Arne Slot thought his squad should be bigger then maybe they should’ve paid less transfer fees and maybe brought in more," Reid told BBC Radio 5 Live."It’s alright after the event saying they don’t have a big enough squad, you have to cut your cloth accordingly, if you want to build a club that’s capable of building on all fronts like a club, like Liverpool should."For me, one of the really big losses in this and, you see how well he’s doing at Bayern Munich, is Luis Diaz.