Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez branded a ‘coward’ by former Liverpool star

Lisandro Martinez narrowly avoided a red card at the weekend (Picture: Getty Images)

Lisandro Martinez has been accused of making a ‘coward’s tackle’ in Manchester United’s draw at Crystal Palace, by former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock.

It was a stalemate at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening, with the Eagles and the Red Devils playing out a goalless draw.

The match is not one that will linger long in the memory but Martinez putting in a two-footed challenge on Palace midfielder Daichi Kamada was one eye-catching moment.

Just after the hour-mark, Martinez and Kamada chose for a loose ball and the Argentinian decided to go in with a two-footed stomp.

It was a bizarre choice and fortunately the Manchester United defender didn’t quite make contact with the Japanese midfielder, but Warnock was not impressed anyway.

‘It’s a coward’s tackle, is all it is,’ Warnock said on Sky Sports News. ‘It’s a cowardly tackle to go in and try and protect yourself, I don’t like it.

‘The intent’s there. I don’t understand why you’d go in and make that challenge. I think he’s very, very lucky.’

Martinez made a very strange choice to go in two-footed on Daichi Kamada (Picture: Getty Images)

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner felt the challenge could easily have caused a broken leg for Kamada.

‘For me, it also looked really heavy,’ said Glasner. ‘Fortunately, I think he touched the ball and not the shin of our player because I think he would have broken his leg.

‘The referee decided no red card. I don’t want to complain about the referee’s decision. We made many more wrong decisions than the referee today.’

Martinez was booked for the odd challenge, with VAR deciding that there was no need to upgrade it to a red card.

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