Now, first things first, I am not for one moment saying that this was not a penalty. BUT, the big difference in the prem is that, in certain situations, the forwards seem to be looking to win a pen over trying to score goals. Ramires seemed to have little intention of going for goal. It seemed to me that as soon as he broke away and saw Ruddy coming out his instinct was to nick the ball away before going over the keeper. Very clever. This was obvious by the direction he nicked the ball. If he was seriously trying to go round Ruddy his touch left him with little or no chance of scoring. I can also guarantee you that if Ruddy had somehow managed to not touch him, he still would have gone down. He was on his way well before contact was made. In the champ, most players would have tried to score or would have at least gone into that situation looking to beat the keeper rather than fall over them. That is why some of them are in the Champ and not the Prem. As a club, we have to wise up and realise that this is way to win in this league. It is not cheating, it is using the rules to your advantage. Personally, I think the rules need to be changed to prevent this kind of attitude but until that happens we need to make sure we limit the possibilites of it happening again as much as we can.
I watched it this morning and agree it looks like he played for the penalty and it is becoming quite apparent that this is what the PL has become. Win at all costs. City need to play the same way even if it does mean our cousins south of Diss have a pop at our guys falling down. We have to play the same to win!
You know what, I think I would rather see Norwich lose than resort to that kind of tactic. At least then I could still have pride in my team. What we do have to realise is that other teams will try that, so we need to counter it early. Yesterday Naughton had a chance to take Ramires out early. Problem is he would have been sent off as was already on a Yellow. He should have taken the red. I know we would have been down to 10, but it would not have been a pen. Game would have remained at 1-1 and who knows after that.
Part of me agrees with that sentiment, I do not like the PL for what it has become but I would rather we were in it than out of it, just for the money it generates.
This is why I think technology should be used before major decisions are made, red cards, ball crossed the line etc and tie that in with retrospective punishment will put a stop to the kind of cynical crap that goes on in the premier league from continuing. Watching the Everton v Blackburn just now with 3 penalties, just highlights it, none of them should have been awarded, they were all bad decisions and players going for penalties not goals.
To be honest, I think it's ridiculous to say Ramirez wasn't trying to score, and we're just frustrated that we've had 2 reds and 3 penalties in as many games. The difference is this time, and only this time it was the right decision, so we can hope it evens out over the season, or we can feel very hard done by.
To be fair, I think we maybe need to take our blinkers off a bit as Holt does his fair share of it and it's not as if we weren't on the receiving end of plenty of pens and oppostion red cards last season. Like has been said, it's all part of the game nowadays and love it or hate it (I personally absolutely detest it with a passion!) unless something completely radical happens - like havng refs who actually own a full sized pair of testicles to start with - it will only get worse. Just saying...
DM, I have no doubt when he ran in to the box a goal was on his mind, no doubt at all but cannot help thinking once he sensed the opportunity was all but lost he made the most of an on rushing keeper, using the rules of the game to his advantage.
Whether it was a blatant dive or there was contact by Ruddy (which there clearly was) I don't think the ref had any alternative but to award the penalty. But what infuriates me far more is the lack of spine to rightly give "£50m rated" Torres a second yellow for a desparate late lunge from behind when his man had got away from him. That's where the dual standards which penalise clubs like ours/protect the 'big 5' need addressing However, the more money there is in the game, the less likely that becomes.
I can 100% guarantee without any shadow of a doubt that there is no way in the world Hilario would have been sent off it that had been the exact same situation down the other end. We might have got the penalty decision but absolutely no chance they'd have been reduced to ten men, that's the bit of it that really sucks.
Sid, I'm not sure- Morison had loads of time before Terry closed him down, if he'd just run at Hilario and knocked it round him the ref would have had no choice...
If it means we stay up then cheating is fine by me, these hero teams that lose every match with dignity are deluded....Dive cheat influence the ref pretend to be injured. These traits are drilled into football at the top level....Win at any cost
