LONDON —
Virgil van Dijk said new Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez must learn to “control
himself” after being sent off for a reckless head-butt during Monday’s 1–1 draw
against Crystal Palace.
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The 23-year-old
Uruguayan, who signed from Benfica in June, was shown a straight red card in
the 57th minute at Anfield for his foul on Joachim Andersen and faces a
three-match ban.
Colombia’s
Luis Diaz scored a brilliant equalizer after Liverpool were reduced to 10 men to
cancel out Wilfried Zaha’s first-half opener.
But the draw meant
more dropped points for Jurgen Klopp’s team, who have just two points after
their first two matches of the Premier League season.
Klopp is already
short of attacking options — Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino were absent from
the squad for the Palace game and Nunez will now miss games against Manchester
United, Bournemouth, and Newcastle.
Van Dijk said Nunez
had the support of his teammates but must learn to stay calm.
“He’s got the
backing from us and he knows it should not happen again and hopefully it will
be that way,” said the defender.
“He has to control
himself, definitely. I think that’s a separate thing. He has to manage himself,
he has to be knowing that these things can happen, especially in the
Premier League.”
“It will be a
learning curve for him and hopefully it will never happen again.”
Andersen was booked
following the clash that led to Nunez’s dismissal, and some Liverpool fans felt
he had deliberately provoked the striker.
The Palace defender
revealed on Tuesday that he had received death threats and social media abuse
since the incident.
He is reported to
have asked Palace’s police liaison officer and the Premier League to
investigate.
“Got maybe 300–400
of these messages last night,” the Dane posted to his Instagram story. “I
understand you support a team but have some respect and stop acting tough
online.
“Hope Instagram and
the Premier League do something about this.”
Liverpool, who have
been involved in a series of tight Premier League tussles with
Manchester City in recent years, are already four points behind the defending champions and
leaders.
But Dutch
international Van Dijk said it was too early to make firm predictions.
“We’ve played two
games so far this season, and there’s still a long way to go, so anything can
happen,” he said.
“That’s been shown
over the last years so we’ll focus on ourselves.”
“We don’t read what the others from the outside say about us
because nobody knows what’s really going on.”
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