Ill see how consistent you are with that view as the whole season unravels then. I agree pulling and wrestling should be clamped down on but attackers already have so many advantages, if you’re not even allowed physical contact as a defender now then it’s gone way too far.
For me the issue is how you defend a corner as from free kicks you rarely see as much pulling. It's almost a habit now. Corner equals hold opponent. Free kick is make run along danger line and clear. Just maybe if teams focused on standing still to block runs off and making strong clearing headers not dragging and pulling then there might be 10% more goals conceded but it'd be less pens.
I can understand that physicality is part of football like when you're shoulder to shoulder. But when the ball hasn't even been played and the defender is doing a full body cavity search on the opponent, then that is wrong.
Think the Russian security need to step up and improve their searching of fans getting into the stadium.Judging by the amount of players going down and rolling about there's at least two snipers getting into the grounds.
Three teams for me have been consistently good in this tournament - Uruguay, Croatia and Mexico. They've come across good opposition, in case of Mexico, very good and won. We will see what England and Belgium are made of in the next game, i hope it doesn't turn into another flaccid affair like France v Denmark.
Surely you don’t think macherano wrestled him to the ground? His had his hand on his waist and the guy fell into masch.
I didn't actually see that one, but I've seen several others where it has happened. I don't see why players have to attempt sodomy at every set-piece though. Why put your arms around anyone if not to impede them? The problem is that footballers' dishonesty creates these issues. Just like falling over clutching their faces whenever there's any contact, then anyone feeling arms around him can lean into the opponent and throw themselves over to simulate a wrestling move. I think I've probably said often enough on here that cheating and play-acting pisses me right off, and I'd like to see a severe crackdown on it. However, judging a genuine foul from a simulated one is tricky, and is often subject to one's allegiances. I think VAR tech could be put to better use with a rigorous analysis of games and retrospective punishments that really hurt. It would be time-consuming and labour-intensive, but if it reduced this nonsense it would be worthwhile, imo.
I'm against var as some on here know but one area where I thought it might do good is playacting but if anything it's made it worse.
I think we're in a small minority here. We're just a pair of Cnuts trying to tell the tide of progress to go back, as far as most are concerned.
i would say he wasn't wrestled. That Nigerian guy goes down easily and can easily stay on his feet However when you see someone with an arm around like this, then it's a foul in my book and he's not going to get anything if he doesn't go down https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44623349
i'm against VaR. Well actually i'm for VaR for offside goals now. I quite like the idea not to flag up very tight calls and let VaR decide if he goes in. Still take VaR away from penno situations though.
Scholes reckon Henderson is the dogs bollocks and a leader: I think Jordan Henderson has done really well. He's had a great couple of game so far. People have said he's a safe option but he's played some good forward passes and been a leader.
I'm for it for straightforward technical decisions. It's the subjective ones that I don't think it can ever resolve.
Personally I think he should have been captain from experience and what he is like as a man. If you go for quality as Southgate did you go for Klaim. I'm not sure how any of the players would understand any instructions from him though, as gormless as gormless gets
