Rafael van der Vaart insists he has no problem with Jurgen Klopp after the former Liverpool manager was critical of the Netherlands legend over comments made about Virgil van Dijk.
Van der Vaart, who earned over 100 caps for Oranje, likened Reds captain Van Dijk unflatteringly to a Boeing 747 during their 2-2 draw with Japan at the World Cup earlier this month. That critique brought out a stinging riposte from Klopp in his role for German station Magenta TV, saying: "If he ever says something positive about a player, I'm willing to take him seriously again."
Van der Vaart's respect for Klopp
Van der Vaart says he would have loved to have played under Klopp and says he has no issue with the former Reds boss leaping to the defence of the player he made captain at Anfield three years ago.
“Jurgen Klopp is a great coach and a great person, I respect him a lot," Van der Vaart told wetbasis-AceOdds. "He is a manager I would have loved to play under. All the players go through fire for him and I like his passion for the game. I will always listen to him and he has done so much for football. In terms of what he said about me, I don't care at all.
"I am not the type of person who gets mad or anything. I was critical of a specific moment of Van Dijk and of course Klopp was his coach. It is completely normal that he defends him, so I respect that.”
Van Dijk's World Cup campaign
Van Dijk will lead the Dutch out when they meet Morocco at the World Cup at 2am, UK time, in the last-32 knockout tie.
Van der Vaart added: “I think I am being misunderstood sometimes. As a person I speak very much from my feelings and my heart. You know, I get sent questions, I don't even read it. I talk to the person, I am not deaf. I understand the questions and will say what I see, not what I have to say.
"I did that as a player and I do that now as well. I don't say anything to make headlines, I actually prefer not to. But I watch the games and sometimes you like the player, you like what you see and sometimes you don't. Not their personality, but their abilities as a player.
“I am so positive about so many players, but when I see something I don't like or they are playing a bad game, I should be allowed to say it. I have to say what I see. You know, sometimes my colleagues in the media industry think they don't want to criticise too much because they can see the player the day after, but that's how it is.
"I am also seeing players the day after I said they played a bad game, but when I see him everything is normal. He knew he played a bad game. I was exactly like that when I played as well.”
“When some of the big names like Johan Cruyff or whatever were criticising me when I played a bad game, I was still talking normally to them. It is a part of the job and a part of my job is to see how I see the game. It is what it is.”
