Roy Hodgson has accused Virgil van Dijk of contributing towards Jordan Ayew’s dismissal in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Ghanaian was given his marching orders by Andy Madley for two yellow card offences, and the 76-year-old raged at the Reds captain for his apparent role in the first of those, which the Eagles’ number 9 received for preventing the visitors from taking a quick free kick.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the match, a clearly dismayed Hodgson said of the Palace forward: “He’s been on four yellow cards for three games. He’s shown incredible discipline. 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.
“If you’re Liverpool Football Club, you don’t need players of Van Dijk’s quality and status in the game trying to get a player a yellow card for kicking the ball at his foot.
“The second one I thought was a good challenge, and even if it was deemed a foul – which it could be – it wasn’t a yellow card.”
It’s understandable that Hodgson would feel as if Palace were hard done by this afternoon, given the litany of disputed refereeing incidents at Selhurst Park, but to accuse Van Dijk of getting Ayew booked is disappointing from the Eagles boss.
The Liverpool captain had every right to try and take a quick free kick, especially with the Reds having just gone 1-0 behind with half an hour remaining, and we highly doubt that his thought process in that moment was ‘let’s get this guy booked’.
You can see Hodgson’s comments below (from 1:13), via @footballontnt on X (formerly Twitter):