17 hours ago
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Gary Neville laid into Aston Villa after Emiliano Martinez's error handed Mohamed Salah a goal on a plate just before half-time at Anfield.
The first half between Liverpool and Villa was a pulsating, end-to-end encounter, with Morgan Rogers coming within inches of putting Villa into the lead when he crashed a shot off the post early on.
That was the closest either team had come to scoring until Hugo Ekitike saw a header disallowed for offside as half-time approached.
Around two minutes later, Liverpool had the ball in the back of the net — and this time it counted, as Salah took advantage of a misplaced pass from Villa keeper Martinez to open the scoring.
Villa had a close call earlier in the game when trying to play the ball out from the back, but Dominik Szoboszlai failed to punish Unai Emery's side.
Salah was more ruthless than his teammate — although his chance was admittedly easier — and Neville criticized Martinez for his choice of pass.
“What the hell are they doing? Madness from Aston Villa," Neville said on NBC. "They’re away at Anfield, there’s Liverpool players, five or six of them, they’re ready to pounce.
"And what Martinez is doing there I have no idea, that first pass is awful, because you watch very closely, he passes it and then rather than getting back to his goal, he goes to try and close down [Cody] Gakpo thinking that Salah is going to square it and just leaves the goal completely open. It’s madness from Aston Villa.
“Anfield is one of the grounds, it’s tight as well. It feels tight. You’ve got five or six Liverpool players that are all looking, they’re on the front foot ready to pounce knowing that if Aston Villa make one mistake that they’re going to be in on goal.
"Why you wouldn’t just smell the danger, see the warning signs that have been there?”
Liverpool doubled its lead in the second half when Ryan Gravenberch's shot from the edge of the area beat Martinez with the help of a deflection.
Gravenberch was making his return to the team after missing Liverpool's last three games with the ankle injury he sustained during the loss to Manchester United on Oct. 19.
English (US) ·