Roy Hodgson didn’t have a glowing evaluation for Virgil van Dijk, who he feels ought to be above making an attempt to get a participant a yellow card within the method he did in opposition to Crystal Palace.
It was a shock for a lot of to see Jordan Ayew given his marching orders within the seventy fifth minute, with the Palace man proven a second yellow card for a problem on Harvey Elliott.
It flipped the sport on its head. On the time of his departure, Palace had been 1-0 up, and only a minute later it was 1-1, and by full-time it was 2-1 to Liverpool.
The purple card was actually a turning level and Hodgson didn’t disguise his disdain for taking place to 10 males, going so far as criticising Van Dijk for one thing any participant has the fitting to do.
“I feel having to play the sport with 10 males for the final 15-20 minutes was unbelievably harsh on us,” Hodgson informed TNT Sport post-match.
“I don’t imagine it was worthy. I don’t assume we deserved 9 yellow playing cards, I most likely deserved mine.
“He’s [Ayew] been on 4 yellow playing cards for 3 video games, he’s proven unbelievable self-discipline.
“Van Dijk took the chance to get him the primary yellow card by kicking the ball in opposition to him from just a few yards away. That’s very disappointing.
“I feel for those who’re Liverpool, you don’t want gamers of Van Dijk’s high quality and standing within the recreation making an attempt to get a participant a yellow card for kicking the ball in opposition to him.
“The second [yellow] I believed was a great problem. Even when it was deemed a foul, which it could possibly be, it wasn’t a yellow card.”
If we have a look at the 2 yellow card incidents in isolation, they’re textual content ebook. Jurgen Klopp just lately voiced his need for his crew to faucet into extra of the darkish arts and that’s what Van Dijk did.
It occurs incessantly in opposition to us, and the Liverpool captain was nicely inside his rights to aim to play the ball, Ayew knew what he was doing when he received in the way in which.
Hodgson’s frustration didn’t dissipate by the point his post-match press convention got here round, reiterating that he “completely disagrees” with the sending off in “each respect.”
He’s beneath a number of stress and it’s comprehensible that he’s “disillusioned” with officiating, as he went on to explain, however fuming at Van Dijk particularly is attention-grabbing.
