Furious Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson slammed Virgil van Dijk for his role in Jordan Ayew’s dismissal during his side’s defeat to Liverpool on Saturday.
The Eagles were leading 1-0 at Selhurst Park thanks to a Jean-Philippe Mateta penalty when the game swung in the favour of the visitors with the somewhat controversial sending off of Ayew. The Ghana international forward was given his marching orders by referee Andy Madley for two yellow cards.
The second of those saw Ayew bring down Harvey Elliott as he tried to launch a counter-attack, but the first, which really annoyed ex-England boss Hodgson, came courtesy of a moment of gamesmanship from the Liverpool captain. After Madley had blown for a foul, Ayew stepped in front of the ball and Van Dijk attempted to whack it at Ayew; despite Ayew jumping out of the way and it missing him, he was still booked by Madley.
Hodgson was unhappy at Ayew’s red card, after which Liverpool equalised within 90 seconds, thanks to Mohamed Salah. Hodgson was duly booked himself for his protestations on the touchline after the Egyptian’s equaliser. From there Liverpool dominated and Harvey Elliott fired home an injury-time winner.
Hodgson was still seething at the final whistle and when interviewed by TNT Sport after the game made his feelings clear.
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“He [Ayew] has been on four yellow cards for three games he’s shown incredible discipline,” said Hodgson. “Van Dijk took the opportunity to get him the first yellow card by kicking the ball against him from a few yards away. That’s very disappointing.
Andy Madley sent off Jordan Ayew in the 75th minute (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)“I think if you’re Liverpool Football Club you don’t need players of Van Dijk’s quality and status in the game to try and get a player a yellow card in a game by just kicking the ball against him.
“The second one I thought was a good challenge. Let’s say even if it’s deemed a foul which it could be, it wasn’t a yellow card. The only yellow card offence from our side I would totally agree with was Joachim Andersen at the end gets frustrated and kicks the player that’s a yellow card.”
When it came to Van Dijk however, Hodgson wasn’t done there. Speaking to another of the Premier League's rights’ holders - beIN Sport - he added: “The one that bothers me most of all is the so-called time-wasting with Van Dijk, who is a very experienced player – a player who has won everything in the game – took the opportunity to step forward and kicked the ball against him [Ayew].”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp conceded that his side "got lucky" as they snatched another victory from the jaws of defeat. They’ve now taken 18 points from losing positions in the Premier League already this term.
"I'm a very happy manager at this moment and I know we were lucky as well," he said. "If you only win your really good games then you have no chance of being successful.
"Today was not a really good game, for 76 minutes it was a really bad performance. What we did from minute 76 until 105 was really good. They got the red card then we scored right after and that was really helpful. That is why I said we were lucky as well."
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