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Wijnaldum keeps Merseyside feud with Everton boiling over

Liverpool manager and players keep stoking the flames

Everton v Liverpool - Premier League Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images

Liverpool’s manager and players continue to throw stones with impunity while living in their egotistical glass house.

Clearly the Merseyside Police getting involved in investigating the torrents of abuse being received by Jordan Pickford and Richarlison by Liverpool fans has done nothing to change their obdurate viewpoints.

Midfielder Georgino Wijnaldum is the latest to use the media to goad on their fans to perpetrate nonsensical conspiracy theories - the offending party that causes an injury should be suspended for as long as the injured player, for one. Clearly he’s forgotten that his own side’s Virgil van Dijk would only have returned from such a suspension this last weekend after he injured Watford FC’s and former Blue Gerard Deulofeu, who suffered his own cruciate ligament injury in a romp over the Reds last season.

“Of course we are upset — the way Pickford went in on the challenge was, in my opinion, stupid.

“I believe he didn’t want to injure Virgil, but the way he took the tackle was basically he didn’t care about what happened after the tackle.”

Did we hear him call Trent Alexander-Arnold ‘stupid’ after this tackle?

Here’s Wijnaldum with a grandstand view of Naby Keita almost disembowelling an opponent.

The Dutchman went on to act like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth when blaming Everton players for being too physical, clearly having turned a blind eye to fouls committed by his own side, including two egregious ones by his teammates Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson smacks of disingenuity.

“I think we had it a lot in the games against Everton. In my opinion they take it way too far in the games we play against them. We know it’s a derby, and everyone wants to win the derby; sometimes you go over the top, but this was too much. It was not only his tackle but also Richarlison’s tackle on Thiago was also a nasty one.

“That’s what bothered me the most and the other players — accidents can always happen in football, you can be unlucky with a tackle where you injure someone, but the way they were doing it was unacceptable. It makes it harder Pickford didn’t get punished after seeing the videos.”

Clearly, Wijnaldum has also forgotten that Liverpool have had their own (less than fair, if you ask most Blues) share of red cards from Merseyside derbies past. Who could forgot the horror and shock as we saw Steven Gerrard jump in two-footed at Gary Naysmith?

Admitting that Pickford did not intend to injure van Dijk but then going on to say that Everton players have it in for his lot is the kind of hypocritical nonsense that this game doesn’t need, especially when both the offending parties - Pickford and Richarlison - have apologized for their parts in the incidents.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here are strictly the writer’s own and in no way represent Everton football club, the players or the website Royal Blue Mersey.