Wednesday 16 January 2019 12:04, UK
Burnley defender Ben Mee believes big-name players should not be able to "walk around with a ring round them" and avoid being tackled.
The defender and his Burnley team-mates came in for criticism from Jurgen Klopp for a challenge on Liverpool and England defender Joe Gomez last month as the Clarets lost 3-1 to the Premier League leaders at Turf Moor.
Mee hit back at Klopp's comments when telling Sky Sports tackling should not be allowed to preserve the bigger clubs in the Premier League if the league is to remain competitive.
He said: "It's important to keep it competitive, especially for lower teams, it's important we are able to compete with these bigger teams or you're going to have games where you can't even tackle, the top players just walk round with a ring round them. I thought it was a clean tackle at the time, you know if it's a naughty one or miss-timed it and hold your hands up."
Willy Boly was sent off for fouling Bernardo Silva when Wolves lost to Manchester City on Monday night, while there were calls for Vincent Kompany to be dismissed for a challenge in City's 2-1 win over Liverpool at the start of January.
"With [Willy] Boly's, if it doesn't make contact where it does it's an okay tackle," Mee said. "But it's because he has caught his ankle. Kompany's I didn't think it was a red card.
"Players who know how to tackle know how to tackle, and some who don't tackle that often get caught in that sort of half-way where they're going in but they're not really sure whether to go in and it can look worse than what it is."
