to be honest, i find shirt pulling and cynical fouls and time wasting a far more bigger crime than 50/50 dives where theres contact, enough to put off a player but not enough that it's an out and out foul. Outright dives should be dealt with though. As for CLs, it wasn't an out and out dive but it didn't deserve a penalty. To be honest, even in my "friendly" games that i play amongst mates theres plenty of cheating going on even though theres nothing on the line (shirt pulling, outright fouling) so its no surprise it's there in the professional game where they are actually rewards!
I always shirt pulled and pushed when I could get away with it, I don't really have a problem with it and don't go screaming pen when there's a bit of shirt pulling or very little contact. If that pen was the other way round I would not be calling it the other way. Blatant diving is wrong and I didn't do that as a player the Everton lad decided to go to ground he wasn't pushed off his feet.
yeah i know, it's so ingrained in our game that we think a little bit is fine when really they are fouls. Depends what sort of push it is, if its arm out then thats just using your strength. Two handed pushes or blatant pushes into the back are the ones that are annoying. Shirt pulling isn't natural and that's just filthy playing. The cynical fouls when a skillful player dribbles past you and you deliberately kick their legs and foul them. We should be doling red cards out for them This is described as "clever" play and taking one for the team. I agree that is, so is diving edit: It's exactly why Pulis ball and Big Sam can thrive with clubs of less ability. Someone like Howe is doing it without as much cyniscm
What's the point of dealing with outright dives? They never happen any more. Players know how to force contact, and fans like @Tobes have developed a culture where any contact gives a player "the right" to fling themselves at the ground.
Souness and Nichol were from an era when the vast majority of penalties were given for taking a players legs from under him while he was running in on goal, their teammate Kenny Dalglish would regularly be in the opponents area shielding the ball and leaning into defenders when they were leaning into him, but he never fell over like a wilting flower in the wind like today's players, if he won the battle with the defender he'd make an assist or have a shot himself. The decision on Sunday was just part of the modern game, we've had plenty of soft penalties given and nailed on penalties not given, it was a sickener but if we'd have been a goal down to a side battering us and one of our players won a penalty through a weak opposition defender's clumsiness I wouldn't have complained.
As Saint says, this is something we need to embrace in the game and use to our advantage. We have too many honest players in this team.
If our club was getting battered like Everton I'd be more interested in getting a proper owner and manager in to sort it out than defending a dive that won a meaningless point
I don't want to see our players dropping to the ground at the slightest touch. That is the behaviour that needs removing from the game.
I played schoolboy level for Liverpool Boys at right back forty-odd years ago. We were told then that if a player got in front of you in the box you should NEVER touch them from behind as it would be a nailed-on pen. Outside the box you could (and should) whip them up, as you didn't get sent off for it in those days (and boy, I frequently did)....
Got to be honest, I screamed penalty as loud as anyone when Salah was hauled to the ground last Wednesday against Moscow: it was too, even though Salah, strong little bugger with a low centre of gravity that he has, did NOTHING to stay on his feet.
I knew not to shove them in the small of the back, yes. Funnily enough, Diego (just trying to contrary as usual) reckoned that it wasn't the shove so much as he 'tripped him with his hip' (?) . Obviously, in those situations you can't avoid such contact, but you can avoid putting your hand in the small of someone's back and shoving them, and that's what the ref immediately indicated he's given the pen for (and he was right). I understand your frustration and anger Astro, but your ire should be directed at Mane and Lovren - they ****ed up royally, not the ref.
I mainly played at full back at a good level and yes I was considered filthy but it was a battle and any player against me had to use his skills to counter act my attempt to stop him playing. Isn't that what it's all about? I don't recall players dropping to the ground and rolling around. Mane did a few rolls vs Everton after one challenge it was so ****ing silly looking.
It is what it is - the team that doesn't dive nowadays (or even go down easily) has a competitive disadvantage. I can put my hand on my heart and say that if Williams did that to Solanke at the other end I'd both expect Solanke to go down, and I'd scream for a pen. I'd also expect Fat Sam to bemoan that it was never a pen and was only given because it was Liverpool in front of the Kop. I expect the Bluenoses on here (and their faithful retainer, Diego) would agree with him too.
I was left back(yeah in the dressing room)for the Ally's at school, we played the Guzzies on King George V in the inter schools cup, teams could play one overage player back then and there's was Peter Reid, it was 0-0 with about ten minutes left and i was quite satisfied with the game i'd had so far, but Reidy got the ball in their half and done a Maradonna and waltzed around our midfield (twice) and then he was running at me, our teacher on the line, our keeper and the rest of the team were screaming "don't let him get past you" so I'm thinking he'll just swat me off like a fly, so i blocked his run without fouling him and kept my back to goal so i was facing him all the time, then bingo....he's past and running in on goal, the abuse i was getting was terrible so he was in the area and I just wellied him into the air, after wanting to tear my throat out he took the pen and scored and we lost 1-0, afterwards the teacher and my teammates were on my case about giving the winning pen away after telling me not to let the **** get past me under any circumstances. Cheers Reidy for the memories.
