the point imo is that when a team is set you need to pull people out of that shape. one way to do it is for cm to drop deep but there's no assurance someone follows. in the case of Matip he strides forward with ball and cm slots in. as they are getting run at someone now must come out of the line to challenge him and that opens a gap for a smart forward to run into and receive a much shorter pass. imo our 3 tactics for these games are a) big switch ball to full backs wide and advanced (especially if sides are set up narrow) see Robertson to firmino goal v city or any number of examples b) ball over top to mane or salah running in. see fabinho pass to mane. c) pulling someone out of shape and making a pass in. you are right to say he's not an extra man but the point of being a different man is that it's not a cm getting ball with back to play and a forward like zaha could come within 5 yards and force back pass. it's Matip running at midfield and forcing the close down.
I think we are making too much of the pundits judgments and criticisms. They are paid to be controversial and to give it straight. No grey areas. But to be fair, many of us (including me) have said on Saturday we wished that Salah would cut it out. Like I said he scores enough without having to resort to this stuff. No point giving ammunition to the haters. The one on Saturday was not even close and was blatant. Grotesque was probably over the top but he wanted to get his point across.
Did you not see the kick from Sakho?............and Mo still played on even on the turf. Crooks is an imbecile.
But he isnt like that with english players who do the same ie spurs and utd players. If he was consistent fair enough, but he is selective in who he targets.
but Mo checked his options decided there wasn't much chance of scoring and decided to drop to the ground a second after the contact. deffo yellow for me.
I doubt Garth even watches the games so he knows nothing. See his comment about Ederson that I highlighted yesterday. I think the point people are making is that some players get picked out for diving when others don't, and that English media darlings are generally immune to criticism by the English media. This is like us blindly defending LFC players for something we condemn others for - understandable to a point, but still wrong. I understand the argument that you often don't get the pen unless you go down, but I don't see diving as the solution. I've already said I wish he'd cut it out because I don't like to see it from anyone. It was the one thing about Suarez's game that I disliked. Apart from the arm-waving before he'd hit the floor. Oh, and the biting.....
I realise I'm probably on my own here but I don't think Salah is diving. Saturday definitely wasn't. What I have noticed is that defenders are pulling him back by the shoulder. Sakho both kicked him and pulled him by the shoulder, arguably hand to the face. The amount of times he's stayed on his feet and played on - the raking down the back of the leg and Achilles comes to mind - all forgotten because he's won a couple of penalties in a couple of years, literally. please log in to view this image You're not allowed to do what Sakho's doing here anywhere on the pitch.
But it was Hodgson with eagle eyes. Mission accomplished.. He failed to mention the handball foul by his team which was more glaring..
Can someone insert some pics of an owl with giant eyes looking at the incident and then a Pic of said howl jumping up and down and hooting (form winne the pooh most likely.
yes clear assault and a red card offence. Salah played on after going down. he didn't even appeal. He was then attacked by two scum palace players who both should have been booked. He never opened his mouth to them. thats some level of control.... they were looking for reaction. Its the same as the targetting of vvd where they fouled both fabinho and vvd for that free header they "created" clearly they targetted salah to try force a reaction "if he drops at any point provoke him" Hodgson is just scum.
I've watched through to the end there... clearly woy never reacts in this video so he couldn't have seen a handball. I think he nodded off there.. the doddery old ****.
It’s a tough one. He clearly had his hand on Salahs shoulder, did he pull him back? Maybe ever so slightly and Salah probably felt that and went down. Maybe in his mind, was the same as the Newcastle and Brighton ones, only difference in those was that he was running so the pull was more blatant and would have put him off balance. I guess technically it was a dive as there wasn’t enough contact to pull him to the ground but I think we all agree that this day an age a dive is when there is no contact, or someone initaites the contact themselves. In this case, there was contact, All be it minimal and salah went down but probably realised in that moment wasn’t worth it so carried on playing. The fact he didn’t even try and appeal shows that he wasn’t trying to win a pen really.. or at least backed out half way through. Stupid, yes. As bad as anyone else? Far from it. The fact Llorentes one hasn’t been mentioned anyway is crazy. If felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back in sinilar fashion but managed to superman forwards... now talk about unusual reactions!
Headed goal of Palace (from the corner) should have been disallowed, because a Palace player was holding VVD down preventing him from jumping.
You raise some good points here. With regard to Salah, look at his position, he's sitting on an invisible chair - how do you get yourself into that position without a pull? We've seen numerous situations where he's been manhandled - when was the one he was literally pulled over backwards from the waist, like a wrestling move? Referees ignore it - now he gets a few decisions all the rest is forgotten. And don't the media just love putting foreign players down .... no pun intended ... well maybe
I think you are pushing it when you say a dive is when there is no contact. So if I have minimal contact against a player, he is allowed to do a Tom Daley impersonation and it is not a dive? We all know what could lead to a player falling. And that contact on Saturday could not lead to that kind of fall unless suddenly his knees and his legs were transformed into jelly. If we are objective and condemn in our players what we readily do in others, then we would accept that Salah did not need to do what he did on Saturday. Honestly it is now too obvious and he’ll be deeply scrutinised by referees so he might as well cut it out.
Totally agree, BUT if Moss hadn't sent him off and it came to light he knew Milner from his schooldays there'd have been a **** storm, point being once he made it known(if he did)to FA that he knew Milner the match should've been given to a different ref. After all isn't familiarity the reason(or one of them)that Mike Dean is prevented from reffing us and the blues.
