It came as no surprise that Virgil van Dijk was subjected to fierce criticism from Dutch media over his red card in Netherlands’ draw against Hungary last night.
The Liverpool captain was booked twice in the space of four minutes in the final quarter-hour of the UEFA Nations League fixture in Budapest, and he’ll now miss the Oranje’s grudge match against old foes Germany on Monday.
While his coach Ronald Koeman had sympathy with the 33-year-old, whose first yellow card was for dissent despite him as skipper being entitled to speak with the referee, several journalists in his homeland were far less forgiving over the nature of the dismissal.
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In Voetbal International, Martin Krabbendam awarded Van Dijk the joint-lowest rating of any Netherlands player last night, with his mark of 5 described as a ‘failing grade’.
The same rating was issued by Mikos Gouka for Algemeen Dagblad, who wrote that the Liverpool defender had an ‘unpleasant evening’.
However, the strongest criticism came from Rick Kraaijeveld of Sportnieuws, who branded it a ‘stupid’ sending off and added: “The situation took place on the side of the field in a fairly harmless position. In the last minutes of the match, it is not possible for you as a captain to show your frustration by making a foul. He made a bad impression with that.”
Van Dijk is no stranger to being castigated by journalists and pundits in his native country, so he won’t be the least bit surprised or perturbed by the furore over his dismissal last night.
Although his second yellow card was clearcut, the first booking seemed harsh, as referee Lukas Fähndrich almost instantly reached for his pocket when the Netherlands captain came over to have his say about one incident.
The official could’ve made more of an effort to enter a reasoned dialogue with the 33-year-old in that instance, but the eventual dismissal might have positive ramifications for Liverpool.
Van Dijk will now have just over a week to prepare for the Reds’ showdown against Chelsea next weekend, the first of seven matches in 20 days as Arne Slot’s side approach a hugely challenging sequence of quickfire fixtures.
Whilst personally frustrating for our number 4, we imagine that plenty of LFC fans (at least those who aren’t of a Dutch extraction) won’t be too displeased that he’ll miss the Germany game on Monday.
The post Dutch media rip into Virgil van Dijk over ‘stupid’ red card; he’ll now miss high-profile fixture appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
