Carragher adamant van Dijk should have stayed on the pitch (Picture: Sky Sports/Getty)
Jamie Carragher has blasted the decision to send off Virgil van Dijk during Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Liverpool
Just minutes after Anthony Gordon gave the hosts the lead, Reds skipper van Dijk was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Alexander Isak.
With the Swede played through by Gordon’s excellent through ball, van Dijk appeared to go through the Newcastle forward before getting a touch on the ball and was shown a straight red by referee John Brookes.
Liverpool legend Carragher was left irate with the decision. While he believes van Dijk was ‘lazy’ in getting across to Isak, he insisted the Newcastle star was not denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
‘Virgil van Dijk does a lot wrong here,’ Carragher told Sky Sports.
‘He is lazy initially in terms of not getting across, the decision to then go in and make a challenge is probably ill-advised.
‘But I still don’t think that is a red card. How do you know that is a goal scoring opportunity? Initially he is lazy and should get over earlier and maybe should not make the challenge but that is not a red card.
Van Dijk walked after just 28 minutes (Picture: Getty)
‘The red card is not about van Dijk giving a foul away, but we don’t know if he has denied a goal scoring opportunity.
‘The rules are about denying a goal scoring opportunity and we don’t know if he has denied a goal scoring opportunity.’
Liverpool were perhaps lucky to not have been down to nine men in a frenetic first-half with Trent Alexander-Arnold also involved in another heated and controversial incident.
The England international was shown a yellow card just five minutes into the match for throwing the ball away following a shove from Gordon.
Just moments later, the Liverpool full-back stopped the Newcastle winger in his tracks by throwing his arm across and halting a dangerous counter attack.
Alexander-Arnold was spared, but his first-half woes continued, at fault after failing to control a pass from Mohamed Salah leading to Newcastle’s opener.
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Van Dijk was shown a straight red card after just 28 minutes.