Nigel de Jong was left annoyed and angry on beIN SPORTS (22/11/20 at 6:35 pm) after Kieran Tierney confronted Gini Alioski following Arsenal’s controversial draw at Leeds on Sunday.
The former Dutch international made it clear to Tierney that ‘you are not that guy’ to confront players in such a manner. De Jong thought Tierney should be confronting Pepe in the dressing room instead for his ‘stupid actions’.
Pepe was shown a straight red by VAR when replays showed that the Arsenal winger headbutted the Leeds man early in the second half.
Arsenal’s left-back clearly wasn’t happy with the role Alioski played in the incident and he was highly-criticised for his actions by de Jong.
“Tierney is trying to find a blame for Alioski here,” said De Jong. “But he doesn’t have to do that. If he’s a big man now, if he’s such a big man that he’s trying to confront his opponent then he should be a big man by going into that dressing room and confront Pepe.
“Then you are a big man. It is not Alioski’s fault. He needs to go to Pepe. Going back again [after Tierney confronted Alioski he walked away before walking back towards him again]. For what? You are not that guy!
“You are not that big guy. Just go in the dressing room and confront Pepe. You go out there with 10 men, try to hold out for a draw and fortunately for Arsenal they got a draw out of it. But if you are really a big man and a good teammate, you go inside [the dressing room] and confront Pepe with his stupid actions.”
At the end of the day, it was a clear sending off and an incident in which Pepe fell for because he was being wound up by his opposition counterpart.
Tierney’s reaction could be seen in two ways from the Scotsman standing up to his teammate or being in the wrong for not criticising his teammate behind closed doors for nearly costing his team.
Whilst Tierney’s actions after full-time will make the headlines, the ex-Celtic man had a very solid game and it was a return to form following his poor showing against Aston Villa last time out.
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