Wijnaldum: Everton Tried to Injure Us

Jurgen Klopp and Ronald Koeman might have had differing opinions on the severity of some of the tackles, but to most outside observers Everton should have seen at least one red over the course of a brutal 90 minutes at Anfield.

Of course last year saw a horror tackle essentially end the season of in form Divock Origi, and it looks like this year we’ll be losing top scorer Sadio Mane for the rest of the season.

Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum had to disagree with his countryman, claiming that Everton were too aggressive, and possibly even playing with the intention of injuring their cross-town foes.

"The tackles, especially those from the players from Everton made on our players, it was hard to see, hard to accept, because I think you can play the game really hard, but not with the intention to give someone an injury," Wijnaldum told Sky Sports.

"For me, my opinion, that is a bad thing, because you have to play the game fair. Of course you can play hard, to win, but not to injure the player, because that's not part of the game.

"I saw a few, even in the replay, I saw a few tackles that had to be red."

Of course, no reds were given, with the "man’s game" mentality and Derby leniency adding up to some pretty brutal on-pitch play. Considering that Funes Mori’s deserved red (and subsequent 4-0 thrashing) did nothing to prevent similar tackles this season, this sadly might be the new normal.