'Get off the pitch and take your medicine': Gary Neville thinks Van Dijk red card justified

54
140
'Get off the pitch and take your medicine': Gary Neville thinks Van Dijk red card justified

Virgil van Dijk was shown a red card for a foul on Aleksander Isak in the first half of the Newcastle v Liverpool game.

Jurgen Klopp was quite animated after the decision while Jamie Carragher insisted that the Dutchman's foul did not amount to denying a goalscoring opportunity.

Gary Neville has sided with the referee as he slammed Van Dijk for both the challenge and his reaction to seeing red.

"Jurgen Klopp is perplexed but I thought he [Van Dijk] just kicked through the centre forward," the former Man United defender said on Sky Sports.

"Van Dijk’s questioning the decision but this is going to get very messy, very quickly for Liverpool if they go down to ten men. It wasn’t Van Dijk’s ball to win from the angle he was challenging from.

"He had to try and follow Isak’s run but he decided to try to win it. I think he just kicks through Isak to get the ball. Oh he does. He kicks his left leg, it’s so rash from Van Dijk. He’s got the pace, he’s the right side, he doesn’t need to commit there.

"Now he’s starting to abuse the official. He’s not going to overturn it. We’ve all been there, you’ve just got to get off the pitch and take your medicine.

"It’s a VVD that wouldn’t have tried to win that a few years ago. He would have allowed Van Dijk to take a touch and take it off him in the channel. It’s just rash from Van Dijk.

"I mean look at that, he doesn’t just tap him – he wellies through him! Isak’s gone past him because Van Dijk is committing [to the tackle]."

Best
Newest
Oldest