Liverpool smashed the world record for a defender by paying Southampton £75m for Van Dijk.
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has played it cool when asked about the Dutchman.
But the 54-year-old did appear to aim a dig at the Reds by saying Van Dijk was not in the same mould as the likes of Paolo Maldini and Rio Ferdinand,
“You know, I think the one’s that speak about it in a specific way has to be Jurgen and if I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago,” he said.
“But I am not speaking specifically about that case because in Liverpool they do what they want to do and I am nobody to comment on what they do.
“The reality is that if they think that the player is the right player for them and they really want the player they pay his amount or they don’t have the player because that is the way the market is at that time.
“So when we compare now the amount of money certain managers and club spend try to compare that I am not saying with 10 years ago but three years ago is to compare the impossible.
“You cannot compare the realities. Virgil van Dijk is the most expensive defender in history of football, was he better than Maldini, Bergomi or Ferdinand?
“You cannot say that, is just the way the market is and you pay or you don’t pay.
“If you pay obviously you pay a crazy amount of money but if you don’t you don’t have the player.
“Is as simple as that, so no critics at all about what Liverpool did, is just the way it is.”
Meanwhile, Mourinho also called on United to return to winning ways against Southampton tomorrow.
“I think we played very well in both matches, probably the frustration is because we played so well but we made mistakes that cost us the points in both matches,” he added.
“We conceded goals but we played very very well in both matches, we played very offensive, in a very creative way, we gave a freedom to the players, we didn’t score enough goals in relation to what we create, so we were punished by not having great efficiency in both boxes but we played very well in both matches.”