Former Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott has leapt to the defence of Liverpool star Darwin Nunez.
New Reds striker Nunez was sent off on his home debut on Monday. The Uruguayan was shown a straight red card for headbutting Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen in the 1-1 draw at Anfield.
Nunez will now serve a three-match ban - starting with this Monday's clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He will then be absent for the games against Bournemouth and Newcastle United.
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And Lescott has explained why he thinks Nunez was “naive” with the incident involving Andersen. The ex-Everton star went on to defend the Liverpool forward following his summer move from Benfica.
“It was certainly naive for the Uruguayan to react in the way that he did,” Lescott told LiveScore . “But we must remember this is a 23-year-old who has just undergone a massive period of change in his life.
“He knows he let his team-mates down and the fact that they dropped points will hurt him even more. I know the feeling all too well, having received a few red cards early in my career.
“You learn from these things though and he now has to expect opposition defenders to employ similar tactics to what Joachim Andersen did — and rise above it.”
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