Kieran Trippier had hardly finished his first answer when Diego Costa bounded along the Anfield corridor towards him like a disruptive schoolchild, fake coughing at the hoard of journalists flanking him, and interrupted his team-mate with cries of ‘Rooney! Rooney!’
Trippier laughed and rolled his eyes with a little shake of the head as Costa skipped off around a corner. ‘He’s crazy,’ said Trippier. ‘He calls me that all the time. It’s the first name that comes into his head.’
Costa’s nickname for the Atletico Madrid right-back comes from the slight resemblance he has to former England and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.