Van Dijk Shows True Colours With Gesture In Liverpool Loss to Crystal Palace

Arne Slot revealed that captain Virgil van Dijk performed a touching gesture during Liverpool’s 3-0 Carabao Cup fourth-round defeat against Crystal Palace.

Slot made ten changes from the weekend’s 3-2 defeat against Brentford in the Premier League, with just left-back Milos Kerkez retaining his spot against Crystal Palace.

The ten-time League Cup winners’ starting XI included three teenagers - Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and Kieran Morrison – with Freddie Woodman and Morrison handed their Liverpool debuts.

But it was the away side who put on a show in the driving Merseyside rain as Ismaila Sarr’s first-half brace put the south London club two up ahead of the half-time interval.

Despite Federico Chiesa showing glimpses of class, Liverpool failed to test Palace ‘keeper Walter Daniel Benitez with the Reds registering just one shot on target from eight attempts while the away side found the target on eight occasions.

Things went from bad to worse on 79 minutes when 18-year-old defender Amara Nallo was shown a red card by Craig Pawson after he brought down Justin Devenny as he raced towards the goal.

Amara Nallo was sent off (Credit:Getty)

Nallo had previously been sent off during his Liverpool debut in the Champions League league phase against PSV in Eindhoven last season, meaning he has now seen red in both of his Reds appearances despite having played a combined 16 minutes across the two games.

And to add insult to injury, Palace’s Yeremy Pino made it 3-0 with just three minutes to go to send the travelling fans home happy.

But one man who won’t be happy this evening is Nallo, which is understandable considering his age.

The youngster will, no doubt, learn from the negative experience and will likely look back on his two red cards in years to come, but for now, he will be feeling disappointed in himself.

Luckily for the 18-year-old, he is surrounded by a number of experienced professionals who can offer him words of advice and guidance – namely Van Dijk.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk (Credit:Getty)

And despite not featuring at Anfield against Palace, Slot revealed the classy thing Van Dijk and centre-back partner Ibrahima Konate did following Nallo’s dismissal.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Slot explained: “I didn't need to say much [to Nallo]. Ibou and Virgil went in immediately to talk to him. That tells me they are great human beings.”

Liverpool return to Premier League action against Aston Villa on Saturday before upcoming matches against Real Madrid and Manchester City.