Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Gary Neville has been discussing Darwin Nunez and how he may have reacted to being sent off against Crystal Palace.
In a moment of absolute madness, Nunez headbutted Joachim Andersen in the second-half at Anfield on Monday night, leaving the Reds a player short for the remainder of the match.
Nunez, rightly, received a lot of criticism for his actions, and Neville believes that the first thing the Uruguayan will have done after the game is apologise to every single one of his teammates for letting them down.
What’s been said?
Neville spoke about Nunez’s reaction to being sent off.
“in terms of a punishment, Jurgen Klopp will probably have a stern word with him tomorrow or the day after, but the player it hurts most when you’re sent off is yourself. That is the loneliest place in the world in that dressing room on your own, it’s horrible,” Neville said.
“You’re in there on your own, you’re fearing for your teammates on the pitch, you’ve let them down and you feel that you’ve badly let them down. You don’t need to say too much to a player who has been sent off because it’s awful enough as it is and you take responsibility. I’m sure that he’s gone around the dressing room after the game and apologised to them all, I’m pretty certain of that, that’s the way it goes.”
These things happen
Nunez will learn a lot from this, and while his teammates may not be too happy with him right now, they will move on quickly.
Indeed, while violent conduct isn’t acceptable in football, these things do happen from time to time.
Even the greatest players in Premier League history saw red in moments of madness. Steven Gerrard did it in his last game at against Manchester United, Wayne Rooney did it in a World Cup quarter-final and Roy Keane did it on almost a weekly basis at one point.
Nunez has had his moment of madness, and hopefully, he’s not got it out of his system and we won’t see a similar situation occur again.
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