Nicky Hayen: ‘Onyedika needs some mental patching up, a bit unlucky with the red card’

Coach of Belgian Jupiler Pro League side, Nicky Hayen says Raphael Onyedika was unlucky to have been red carded in what he called ‘a duel hard-against-hard’ and says that incident and the opening goal of their UEFA Champions League 3-1 loss to AC Milan at the San Siro, Christian Pulisic changed the course of the game.

Speaking after the game, Hayen says he will need to talk to Onyedika on Wednesday about the way he goes about his defensive duties albeit he acknowledges it will not be easy to change the way the Nigerian plays.

The red card was Onyedika’s second this term after receiving his first in a Jupiler Pro-League game last month at Charleroi, but coach Hayen insists the Nigerian never had the intention of hurting anyone in the AC Milan game.

‘Coming back to that goal first, I think the intention was to overcrowd the first zone. They kicked a lot of balls there and our organization was not in a good position there. We didn’t duel enough there and weren’t 100% good on the ball.

As a result, it becomes a treacherous bouncing ball that Mignolet also misjudges. The ball goes in in a very stupid way and that should not happen at this level.

‘Coming back to Raphael’s red card, I think it’s a duel hard-against-hard. The fourth ref even came to see if it was a potential red card for them (AC Milan). Then of course we are surprised that we get the red card, but I have not yet seen the footage. I think you can speak of some bad luck there, but unfortunately it was settled to our disadvantage.

‘Onyedika needed some mental patching up.

‘We’ve comforted him a bit now, first of all, but secondly, we’re just going to have a quiet conversation about that on Wednesday. In that respect, we are also a warm club that does not drop players.

We’re going to look for solutions together, but I don’t want him to change his game. These kinds of mistakes will have to be eliminated, and we have to become smarter about that. That’s not always easy to learn, because you know he’s someone who duels a lot.

However, he never has the intention to hurt anyone, but unfortunately that is what happened today. We have to learn from that, because he’s still young. Of course, we always want to take steps forward and that’s something he has to get smarter about,’ he said at his post-match presser.