Joachim Andersen has called Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez ‘really stupid’ for headbutting him at Anfield last night.
As reported by the Evening Standard, Andersen addressed Nunez’s headbutt on him post-game. The Crystal Palace centre-back claimed that the Uruguayan had simply been upset that he had been defended against so well.
“The whole game I sat really close to him, I annoyed him a lot and did well against him. I think that’s why he was angry with me,” said the Denmark international.
“He head butted me, the first one, at a cross, and I told him he shouldn’t do that. I was angry with him. Then he did it again which is, for me, is really stupid, so it’s a clear red card,”
Steep learning curve for Nunez at Anfield
Whatever way you look at it, Nunez was totally in the wrong last night. The 23-year-old saw the red mist descend having had enough of Andersen’s close treatment. His moment of madness was unjustifiable and inexplicable.
Perhaps he was slightly frustrated with himself for missing two presentable chances on his Anfield debut. But as a professional footballer, you simply cannot react the way he did to Andersen.
At any level of the game that’s a red card. With thousands of eyes on the incident, and cameras everywhere, he was never going to get away with it.
Having said all that, Andersen is maybe giving himself too much credit here. The 26-year-old did handle Nunez well, but he still should have scored twice.
On closer inspection, the Dane was also at times borderline with his physicality against Liverpool’s no.27. But that’s the kind of defending Nunez will have to get used to.
In Portugal, Spain and Uruguay he might have had a free-kick for some of Andersen’s challenges. But here in the Premier League, that’s still par for the course.
Hopefully a silver lining is that Darwin now learns that very quickly. If he’s to be a success at Liverpool, he needs to accept the kind of treatment dished out by the Palace man sooner rather than later.
His teammates will help him, and perhaps it might take some roughing up in training from Virgil Van Dijk and co. Whatever he needs to do to get there, Nunez simply can’t let this happen again.
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