One Liverpool player had both Iraola and Van Dijk furiously venting at him during Newcastle draw

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One Liverpool player felt the wrath of both Andoni Iraola and Virgil van Dijk during the 2-2 draw against Newcastle on Sunday.Milos Kerkez is now the undisputed first choice at left-back for the Reds after Andy Robertson’s summer exit for Tottenham Hotspur, but the Hungarian endured a difficult afternoon at St James’ Park.He was outpaced by Anthony Elanga for the Magpies’ opening goal in the first five minutes and struggled to make much of an impact going forward, with his performance criticised by Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle.Kerkez berated by both Iraola and Van DijkIn an article for the Liverpool Echo on Monday, that same journalist noted two separate instances involving the 22-year-old which earned him an earful from his head coach and his captain.Doyle observed how Iraola ‘struggled to keep his emotions in check’ as Kerkez ‘took an eternity’ to close down Elanga before conceding a corner kick, with the Basque left remonstrating on the touchline as he was ‘not a happy camper – at all’.Another incident saw the Reds’ number 6 rebuked by Van Dijk for being too slow to engage his opponent during a Magpies breakway along the full-back’s side, with the Dutchman eventually sprinting over to intervene and snuff out the danger.(Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)Not the best day at the office for KerkezIt’s commonplace for players and coaches to trade angry words with one another in the white heat of battle at Premier League level, but those two moments were indicative of a tough day at the office for Kerkez.There were some worrying defensive lapses from the Hungarian (as outlined above), and whenever he did get forward, he was culpable of wasting a couple of promising opportunities for the Reds.In fairness to the 22-year-old, he posted some positive underlying numbers (as seen below, via Sofascore), but overall he’ll know he’s capable of performing much better for Liverpool. Duels won 6 Defensive contributions 7 Tackles 3 Shots on target 1 Key passes 1 Iraola will be looking to Kerkez to show a discernible improvement when Nottingham Forest come to Anfield next Saturday, with our number 6 going up against Ola Aina in Oliver Glasner’s wing-back system.It wasn’t the most convincing of starts to the season for the Hungary left-back, but the next game offers an opportunity to put yesterday behind him and show that he can be a vital presence in our starting XI throughout the campaign.