Marcelo blasted, but Lennon says Brits should cheat more

Mark Holmes
Marcelo: Dive against Wolfsburg 'embarrassing' according to Glenn Hoddle

Marcelo: Dive against Wolfsburg 'embarrassing' according to Glenn Hoddle

Marcelo’s dive for Real Madrid was described as “embarrassing” and “shocking” by Glenn Hoddle and Roy Keane, but Neil Lennon says British players should dive more.

Real were beaten 2-0 by Wolfsburg in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night, but Marcelo did his best to gain his side an advantage when he went down went down clutching his face after kicking and then leaning his head into Maximilian Arnold, who was subsequently booked.

Speaking after the game, Hoddle told ITV: “He goes down like he has been shot. It’s embarrassing. This is disgraceful.”

Keane added: “It’s shocking. I do not know how his legs have given way.”

Lennon, however, believes that, rather than take the moral high ground, British teams should engage in this type of gamesmanship more.

He told BBC Radio Five Live: “That’s the British mentality. I played with Paul Lambert, who won the Champions League with Dortmund, and when we played in it with Celtic he would come in [to the dressing room] afterwards and say ‘we’re too honest’.

“We’re too honest compared to the other teams, the Italians, the Portuguese, the Spanish, we always want to stay on our feet and play the game the right way, but these guys don’t care.

“For all the Barcelona are a brilliant team, they would cut your throat in order to win a game of football.”

Real defending criticised

Former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman, meanwhile, had criticism for his former club’s defending in Germany.

“I thought they were woeful, I really did,” McManaman told BT Sport.

“From the highs of getting a good result on Saturday to really low lows tonight.

“Defensively the right-back [Danilo] and left-back [Marcelo] were just all over the place, coupled with Pepe and [Sergio] Ramos who looked like they hadn’t played with each other before.

“I was astounded as to how bad they were. I expected a real calm, measured performance as well.

“It was like schoolboy, Under-10s or Under-12s defending. (In the second goal) Marcelo walks across with his arms behind his back and [Maximilian] Arnold gets two yards ahead of Ramos.

“It seems like the manager just prays on the sidelines that they get it together. It looks as if they just freestyle,” he added.

“It just looks horrific. You can’t blame the manager because he’s just said to the same team which played against Barcelona on Saturday – apart from Danilo – ‘go out and do it again’.”