Change of tactic by Smalling against Saints. In the same game last season he was trying to wrestle Graziano to the ground he wanted the shirt so badly. He was told to stop that, so the shirt pulling started.
The amount of shirt pulling taking place nowadays is unbelievable. For the life of me I cannot understand why referees ignore it. It should be a booking every time and if in the box a penalty.
Hardly a surprise. When the refs have turned a blind eye to Skrtl and Shawcross's indescretions over the past 5 or more seasons then other teams will follow suit. If refs let it go then it is a tactic to be utilised.
Just been trying to remember who the last player was in the PL to get pulled up properly for shirt pulling. All I could come up with was Jose at Arsenal. And that was no more than a tug, IIRC.
I think Stoke gave a penalty away this season or end of last season for similar. This is one rule that I'd love to see enforced better and consistently. Two weekend of lots of penalties and the coaches would stop it happening.
My initial reaction was one of surprise, but I suppose when you get 10 matches every weekend you're bound to have one or two penalties occasionally. I suppose, what should really stagger me is how few are given, and as FLT says, if the refs gave a penalty [or free-kick for the defending side] for every incidence then it would stop after one or two weekends. However, if it was as easy as that wouldn't this have been implemented long ago.? I think referees and officials might be on a hiding to nothing if they are instructed to blow at every incidence, because there will be loads of occasions where they won't see the shirt pulling and pundits/media will tear them apart for it. They don't do it already because there is no requirement for the ref to stamp it out, but even so we occasionally see pundits focussing on that aspect of the illegal game. So whilst I agree that it's desirable to stamp it out, I don't think the officials can consistently police it fairly under the present conditions. Uefa's goal line official seems to miss a fair bit, or so post match video evidence would often suggest, so there's inconsistency there. But at present I don't see video technology as being fast or intelligent enough for this particular infringement to be spotted without error. Perhaps Uefa's extra official is the best way to go for now until technology finds a way, or we just leave it and let players like Smalling continue to do it and occasionally take a hit when the ref finally decides he's seen enough. It's a tough one, in my view.
Nothing quite beats leaping up and cheering like a loon in the middle of the corporate area at Old Trafford......LOL I thought some of them were going to cry
Trouble is it's so widespread it's impossible to police. There'd be bookings, penalties and sendings off at every corner if refs decided to focus their attention on shirt pulling at set pieces, where everyone is jostling for position while trying to keep track of each other.
I did propose an alternative system of penalising players who shirt pull a couple of seasons back. Few took to the idea.
I have never had so many 'likes', but, just as I thought I had suddenly become a genius, I realised we were all 'liking' everything. That kind of weekend.
Players get booked for shirt pulling all the time, but it's often down the wings to stop a player getting away. If it's not allowed there, it should be a penalty every time. The players know they're not allowed to do it, so they are trying to cheat, and should be punished. Also I didnt see the clear barge on Long in the highlights?
Having read the thread, I see there aren't many mentions of Wanyama. He was my MOTM, he was huge, he was everywhere and absolutely determined that nothing gets past him, player or the ball. Clasie a close contender, but as Wanyama played the whole match I think he deserves it more. Long was once again putting a great shift, battled with Smalling (who I thought did a good job against Long), but his final decisions were not very good. Same for Mane. They were trying hard, but they were out of sync. And Bertrand, I tell you, these three matches, he was playing as well as any CB I've seen in Saints shirt for a good while.
Come back, Tintin - we do value your opinion, just not that negativity you were having. Come and give us your thoughts about the last 3 games and what we should do for the Arsenal game. Perhaps, even, Fats may ask you to do the super positive Arsenal match thread!
