Darwin Nunez's Anfield debut did not play out in the way he would have wanted, but I have been in his position before.
I was sent off about six or seven times in my career. Centre-halves will always try and wind you up and, in my day, it used to be a lot worse than it is now. You can’t be sucked in by them. The way I used to deal with it was by putting the ball in the back of the net to keep them quiet. As soon as Nunez did what he did, he surely knew what was coming.
Even if the defender had stayed on his feet and not gone to ground, Nunez would still have been sent off. That’s modern day football for you. He has let his team-mates down, he has let his manager down but, most of all, he has let himself down. Darwin is so desperate to make runs for the team and score goals, which can sometimes result in a player trying too hard when things aren’t coming off. It’s a case of frustration and now it’s going to cost him by not playing for the next three weeks. The last thing you want is pressure on a new signing and he could have done without this happening after the positive start to his career at the club.
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A lot of people have been comparing Nunez with another Uruguayan forward we once had, who was not afraid to put himself about. I think the Suarez comparison is unfair on Nunez as it is a one-off incident and hopefully he will never do it again. I don’t think Suarez ever got sent off for us but that was probably because of how canny he was. Suarez was craftier than Nunez and was out to wind people up in different ways. What Nunez did was right in front of the referee and, in this day and age with VAR, you can’t do anything like that.
When I first signed for Oxford United, I got sent off twice in two or three weeks for reacting like Nunez did. When I went to Tranmere, I got sent off twice against Oldham for retaliating against centre-halves. I was old at that time and even I was naive. But you have to be more disciplined in the modern era because of the cameras because if the referee doesn’t get you, the cameras will.
Referees need to get a grip on time-wasting antics - for the sake of the game and fans
I’m so sick of watching players feign injuries and time-wasting when playing Liverpool. Every single team does it against us. The actual time the ball is in play in current top-flight games is around 45 and 50 minutes and that is the reason why we have to wise up to it.
People pay a lot of money to watch football and they only see one half of a game - the rest is dead time. That can’t happen. As the leading league in the world, that is a shocking statistic. The referees have to sort this quickly as it’s not football as it should be.
There should be a stopwatch being used by the fourth official, or a fifth official if needed, to take this into consideration as fans are being short-changed. The ball is in play for 45 to 50 minutes in every game, not only Liverpool's. Years ago, the ball would be in play for 70 or 80 minutes and that is how it should be. The way the players go down, the referee has to get a stopwatch out and make them pay down the line by adding the time back on.
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