Get rid of the refs, give the players a mace each, goalies get a pike, and let em go at it, slaughter ball. For the wages they get, I want to see some 'Running Man' style **** With tech there is just no good reason for wrong off side calls these days, same as the goal line tech. The 4th official lino and others are all ****ing useless, they see **** and do\say nothing in every game
I agree it would eliminate the majority of mistakes, but I think there'll still be enough 50/50 situations where the referee is always going to annoy one side whatever way he chooses. As for your last point, I think there are enough people who would say out players already go down easy...
I don't think it's clever play when players go down too easily- I think it's ****ing cheating and they should be punished for it, not admired or encouraged.
Unfortunately, that's the way the game is - it's about being street smart and getting any advantage you can. I rather be the one who goes down and wins a penalty rather than the opposition. Call it snide, but there aren't many fans who complained about Suarez going down at times to win cheap free kicks and penos which led to goals.
Complaining and liking are two very different things. No one is going to complain about getting the decision in their favour but you won't find too many that like winning via cheating either.
Suarez was the most fouled player in the league If he'd got just half of the genuine fouls that were missed I would have complained about going down easy When Huth can jump up and down on his chest without a free kick given of course I won't give a **** if he decides not to struggle to stay up yet again Referee incompetence and inconsistency is the root of all the problems
Never used to be like that though, remember Fowler and the penalty decision in '97? Or Di Canio vs us when he picked the ball up rather than scoring as the keeper was down injured? The type of snide 'gamesmanship' you're talking about hasn't always been part of the game, it used to be more honest. There was a time when honesty had a place in the game.
Suarez was a cheating ****, one of the worst of the breed of new age football snides. Every time he got tackled he went down with that contorted face and ankle grabbing 'agony' that was his trademark. Thank **** I never have to see that again in the flesh
You're right - I meant that its the way the modern game is. I worded it wrong originally - do I agree with it? No, definitely not. But would I do it to win a game? Hell yeah. Using another Suarez example - when he handled the ball at the WC which cost Ghana their chance. Is it good sportmanship? No. But if I was in the same position, I definitely would have done the same. There are a lot of fans who want to act like their honorable and noble in such situations (not saying you specifically) so they pretend that they wouldn't do the same but truth is, we all want to win and at almost any cost.
Give me a player who wants to win at all costs over a player who believes in honesty and fair play. Sounds horrible but LFC lack real winners and snides.
With the World Cup was one at least Suarez accepted what he did as a last throw of the dice. It's not like Paul Scholes throwing the ball into the opponent's net then acting like he did nothing wrong.
What if he returns to the PL...? What if Everton manage to get in the CL and draw Barca...? What if Barca get dropped into the EL...? Never say never
Sorry, Jimmy- I understand what you're trying to say, but rather than accept that it's part of the game and that we should fight fire with fire, I think we should all call it, and condemn it for what it is- no matter who does it. As Tobes(?) mentioned, it hasn't always been like it is today, and it need not be like this in the future, if the will is there to change it. Part of the way to change it is for refs to punish it more (they are at least trying that), but the really significant change has to be the culture of acceptance that is currently rife amongst players, fans and the media. How often, during their game analysis do we hear pundits say "he should have gone down there"? That really pisses me off, tbh- open acceptance of cheating can only ever make it worse. It can be improved, but the culture has to change, and cheats need to be held up as snides rather than clever tricksters. Again, it seems ironic to me, that on a thread discussing poor performances of refs, we're overlooking the major contribution made to it by dishonesty in players.
Spot on saint It increased when the foreign invasion started and over time has become ingrained in our game in recent years. The starting point for trying to rid the game of it, has got to be retrospective punishment for simulation and increasing draconian bans for repeat offenders. They need to send out a strong message that it has no part in our game "Fair Play" needs to make a comeback. I don't want to hear players being called 'naive' for playing fair or fans revelling in a victory delivered by a deliberate act of cheating. It's ruining the game.
Chicken and egg scenario, which atually came first? I reckon bad calls came along well before going down easy
