Virgil van Dijk is not a fan of Sergio Ramos | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has openly criticised Sergio Ramos in the wake of the Spaniard’s spat with Dejan Lovren.

Ramos made himself an enemy of Liverpool when his tussle with Mohamed Salah meant the Egyptian had to bow out of May’s Champions League final with a shoulder injury, with many feeling the Real Madrid captain had deliberately maimed the Reds’ star man.

After Croatia beat Spain in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday, Lovren took the opportunity to take a huge swipe at Ramos via his official Instagram account.

“Haha! 3-2! Go ahead and talk now buddy. Buddy! They are a bunch of pussies,” said the Liverpool man on a live Instagram story, before adding that he “elbowed him good” in Croatian.

And now Lovren’s follow Anfield centre-back Van Dijk has contributed to the war of words in an interview with Dutch outlet De Telegraaf.

“He [Ramos] is a great player and I respect what he has achieved but he is not the best, he is not my type of central defender,” said the Netherlands international.

“Ramos’ teammate at Real Madrid, Raphaël Varane is my favourite. He is an excellent defender and has already won a lot.”

Van Dijk was also asked whether he thought Ramos had injured Salah on purpose in the Champions League final.

“I do not know if it was deliberate but mentally something changed when Salah came off,” he said.

“Suddenly, Marcelo, [Karim] Benzema and [Cristiano] Ronaldo all appeared at Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and released the entire right side. With Salah they never dared to do that.

“The match could have been different. I sometimes think about the match but I hope to be in the final again and on the right side of the score.”