Arne Slot responds to Wayne Rooney jibe as Liverpool boss makes Jurgen Klopp point

Wayne Rooney aimed a dig at Liverpool head coach Arne Slot this week, claiming he lacks "aura", with the Reds boss responding ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest

Arne Slot and Wayne Rooney.(Image: Getty Images)

Arne Slot has dismissed Wayne Rooney's suggestion that he doesn't have a big enough "aura" to be Liverpool head coach, pointing to last season's Premier League title victory.

Heading into this weekend's game with Nottingham Forest, a team that Slot is yet to get the better of since moving to England, Liverpool is playing catch-up in the race for the Champions League spots.

And this week, ex-Manchester United and Everton star Rooney claimed Slot doesn't have the same presence of previous Liverpool bosses including Jurgen Klopp, explaining his thoughts on why the Reds have not performed to as high standards in this campaign.

"Comparing people with each other is something everyone has the right to do, but is that fair to compare people with each other? We are all different," Slot said.

"The only thing we have in common, Jurgen and me, is that we both won the league — and that's not too bad, is it? I think the more a manager wins, the more aura he has. That's in general something.

"I don't know if you agree with Wayne Rooney, by the way, but if this would be the general opinion, then I think people would probably tell you last season I had more aura than this season.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.(Image: Charlotte Wilson/Offside via Getty Images)

"Maybe he's the only one who has this opinion. I don't know, you tell me. It's the first time that I heard this.

"But I think it's fair to say that Jurgen definitely has aura. I can talk about him, not about myself, but he definitely had that. But a winning manager has an aura as well."

As things stand, Liverpool is two points off the Champions League places. Chelsea plays Burnley on Saturday before Manchester United goes to Everton on Monday.

"Now, compared to a few weeks ago, I don't think a lot has changed," Slot insisted on Thursday. "I think from the last 19 games, we've lost twice and twice we've lost in [added] time and, in my opinion, twice we did not deserve to lose both of those games.

"We didn't need yesterday to know how difficult it is to win a Premier League game. We've experienced this [in] this season already a lot of times and I think all the teams experienced this. That's what made the Premier League nicer this season and last season — that it's much more competitive than probably two, three, four, five, six years ago.

"We've improved compared to three or four months ago. I would even include the Bournemouth game because, apart from the goals we conceded, we had total control with dominance, we had a lot of chances — and the same could be said in the second half about [Manchester] City.

"We're in a much better place now than we were months ago and there are two very simple reasons for that. [There are more reasons] but the most simple two are how fit we are now compared with three or four months ago, and the second one is that we are much better in set-pieces at the moment."