Gabriel Martinelli was at the heart of ugly scenes late on after Conor Bradley was stretchered off during Liverpool’s goalless draw against Arsenal
Liverpool star Dominik Szoboszlai has taken aim at Gabriel Martinelli for his unsportsmanlike behaviour after Conor Bradley’s horror injury. The Reds’ full-back was stretchered off in second-half stoppage time after an innocuous landing while attempting to clear the danger.
With Bradley down, the Arsenal forward threw the ball at the stricken defender before attempting to push him off the pitch in order to get play to restart. The Liverpool players reacted angrily with Ibrahima Konate and Alexis Mac Allister among the first onto the scene to support their teammate with the French defender booked for his actions during the melee.
Liverpool held on to earn a commendable point at the Premier League leaders after a much-improved performance following criticism of Arne Slot’s side. But the draw was overshadowed by the sickening injury to the Liverpool full-back and the antics from the Arsenal attacker.
Szoboszlai warned Martinelli over future conduct following Bradley’s injury, urging the importance of player safety. He said: “I saw that Conor twisted his knee, I don’t know what happened with him, obviously he didn’t want to come back to the pitch for time-wasting, he was just in so much pain he couldn’t even think where he rolled and Gabriel come there and push him off the pitch.
“I understand you want to win, we want to win as well, but I think the health of a player is much more important than something else.”
Bradley was spotted leaving the Emirates Stadium on crutches following the innocuous incident in the latter stages.
Gary Neville was on co-commentary and was audibly angered by the conduct of Martinelli.
The former Manchester United defender labelled the actions of the Brazilian as “disgraceful” and said: “You can’t push him off the pitch! You cannot do that.
“That is so poor. I think an apology is needed.
“Bradley is being stretchered off. I’m fuming with Martinelli to be honest. Disgraceful.”
Roy Keane shared the same feelings as he slammed the forward for the incident. He added: “I didn’t like it at all. It happened to me once. I was badly injured and a player stood over me.
“It’s not good. We know football, the player is a good lad.
“Throwing the ball at him, standing over him and getting a little knee on him. He tries to force him off.
“That behaviour is an absolute disgrace. He’s a good boy to roll over himself.
“Hopefully, Martinelli will have a look at it and hopefully, he’ll apologise for it. Not good stuff that.”
Liverpool head coach Slot admitted that he is fearing the worst regarding the diagnosis, he said: “I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy.
“The problem for him, and it’s a problem in general in football, is that there is so much time-wasting in the final parts of games that sometimes you can be annoyed when you want to score a goal and you feel a player is pretending to be injured.
“I’m 100 per cent sure if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn’t do that.”
