James Milner has insisted that he and his Liverpool teammates will rally around Darwin Nunez after the £85million striker's home debut ended in disgrace on Monday night.
Nunez was handed his first Premier League start during the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace after an impressive goalscoring cameo in last weekend's draw with Fulham. However, the striker's first jaunt at Anfield lasted less than an hour after he headbutted Joachim Anderson right in front of referee Paul Tierney.
The Uruguayan's senseless dismissal left Liverpool with a mountain to climb after Wilfried Zaha had fired the Eagles into the lead with a superb first-half strike. Fortunately, Luis Diaz conjured up a moment of individual magic to rescue a point for the Reds, who already find themselves four points behind title rivals Manchester City.
Liverpool will have the chance to kickstart their season next week when they visit a Manchester United side who are currently in disarray, but they will have to do so without the services of their club-record signing, who will miss the next three league matches through suspension.
Nunez has already been slammed for his moment of madness, but Milner has backed the 23-year-old to learn from his mistake. The veteran midfielder told Sky Sports after the match: "I didn't see the incident but he'll be disappointed. It's down to us to rally round him.. he'll learn from it, but the reaction was the most important thing. The team reacted well, the ground reacted well, we could've nicked a win but, you know, we move on."
Although Milner backed Nunez to bounce back, Jurgen Klopp could not hide his disappointment with the Uruguayan ace when speaking after the final whistle. The Reds chief admitted: "Darwin knows [he let his teammates down]. I will talk to him. It was not a reaction we want to see.
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"He know he will be challenged in this way, centre-halves will do that, but it is not a reaction we want. But we will use the time productively. We will use the suspension for physical work to make him strong - not a punishment but to make him stronger."
Liverpool headed into Monday night's match without the services of a host of injured players, and Klopp admitted that Nunez's three-match suspension will only add to his current selection woes.
He added: "Not the start we wanted but two points is the least of our problems right now. It's really tricky with injuries. We have to use next week to maybe bring one or two back, although I don't know if that is possible. We have lost Darwin now as well, which does not help, but Bobby might be back, we will see."
