Steven Gerrard has warned his Aston Villa players that they have to be “prepared” to receive the Darwin Nunez treatment after watching the striker endure a nightmare Liverpool home debut.
The Uruguayan forward was handed his first competitive Anfield appearance against the Eagles last weekend - an outing that ended in disgrace after he was given a red card for a headbutt on Joachim Andersen.
Following the game, footage emerged of the Danish defender antagonising the former Benfica star throughout the game - something that saw him lash out and as a result will miss the next three Premier League games including Monday’s clash with fierce rivals Manchester United.
Gerrard has told his side to buckle down for similar treatment as they travel to Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he said: “We have to be prepared for gamesmanship. It happens at the top level of football. Players try and gain any kind of advantage, we do it ourselves.
“I’ve got no problem with that but we have to be prepared to go there and play with discipline. It's important we keep 11 men on the pitch at all times.
“It’s difficult enough with 11 players so we don't need any unnecessary incidents where we go down to 10 men. The players will be prepared for every eventuality and it’s up to them to make sure they perform with discipline and contribute to the best way to win.
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“If you're not ready for it, you fall into the trap and you get a three game ban. This is not a case of saying defenders are at it because there are a lot of streetwise forwards out there.
“The clear thing is that you can't get away with those sort of reactions any more with more cameras and VAR. You’ve got to be really careful with your reaction. You might not be at fault initially. But your reaction can get you into big trouble as well.”
Gerrard is not the only former Liverpool player to have offered his view on the incident. Nunez’s countryman Luis Suarez has suggested that defenders are only going to start targeting him even further following his red card.
Speaking to Telemundo, the former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid striker said: “From now on they [defenders] are going to look for you 2-3 times more. This is coming from an idiot that was wrong and had a bad time, but falling down and getting up again made me stronger. Don’t give them more chances, it’s going to be worse.
"Darwin is someone who listens a lot. He is very intelligent in that sense and I think he is going to try to turn this situation around, which is nothing serious, we have all made mistakes, we have all been fired; what happens is that just arrived and in England, at the minimum, they already do everything great.”
