Arsenal full-back Nuno Tavares has reacted to Darwin Nunez’s sending off for Liverpool on Monday night.
The Liverpool striker posted an apology on Instagram yesterday after losing his head in a challenge with Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen.
And Tavares was one of those to offer his support to Nunez. The right-back, who Arsenal signed for £8m last summer, played with Darwin at Benfica for a season. He posted two heart emojis to back-up his former teammate.
Kostas Tsimikas was another to react. The Liverpool left-back also chose to express himself in emojis. Differing slightly from Tavares, Tsimikas went with one heart and one praise emoji.
Darwin sends his apologies to Liverpool
It’s important that Nunez’s sending off on Monday night isn’t blown out of proportion. Yes, it was a pretty silly thing to do on your debut in-front of your new supporters, but he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
From a Liverpool point of view, no good will come of dragging him over the coals. Of course he should be told in no uncertain terms that this kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable. But he should know that already.
Instead, it should be used as a learning curve for the 23-year-old. As long as it doesn’t become a habit for him, Liverpool fans will certainly forgive him for his misplaced passion.
In fact, if he plays it right and shows aggression in the right moments, it could endear him even more to The Kop.
To draw an obvious comparison, his countryman, Luis Suarez, had a similarly hot streak. Suarez often played right on the edge, that was all part of what made him a great player.
It’s down to Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s coaches to make sure that Nunez now channels that into his performances. Harvey Elliott has already insisted that his Reds’ teammates will help him all they can, too.
Liverpool will miss him for the next few weeks as they try to navigate a bit of an injury crisis. But the positive news is that it will give Darwin further time to settle in and get used to his role without the full-glare of matchdays.
Onwards and upwards for Darwin, but this can’t happen again.
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