George Boyd gets accused of being a cheat etc etc and yet Sturridge has just done the same as Boyd did and gets a penalty and a red card?????
Or maybe the decisions after Sturridge incidents today were down to human error. These things happen.
Agreed. Thought it was a certain pen on first view. then the angle from the dead ball line and you could see the cheating little **** dive.
Agreed I thought that same initially. Mind you they should've had one later after Carrick kicked him.
Boyd did not ****ing dive. I've seen it since and Hart clearly makes contact while Boyd is falling over. Boyd was trying to avoid being totally sidelined by Hart, and who can blame him for that? The penalty appeal was a soft one, and you're going to be angry at his lack of sportsmanship then go for that, but he didn't jump and feign being sniped from the stands.
Sturridge is a a current England international and clearly has the enhanced diving skills that are now considered to be an important part of the strikers' armoury. George Boyd is only a novice!
I thought Boyd was probably losing balance as well. He did appeal for the penalty, but that's no different than what pretty much every player would do. And he was definitely pushed in the back in a later incident. Personally I'd rather football wasn't about getting penalties, but I think it's like that because it's pretty difficult to score in the sport.
If Sturridge was booked after the game for diving it would soon stamp diving out. Every player who dives gets a retrospective yellow card, players when they start getting banned will soon stop it. Pundits have started to accept it, that's another huge issue for me. We can't just go on and say ah that's football it needs stopping.
He did though. It was as bad as Sturridge's today. I'd love to see it like you have and blissfully pretend we're the only team who don't have anyone who dives, but he clearly dived. He jumped and tried to fall onto his knees before he even touched Hart. Apart from issues with sportsmanship he also wasted our biggest opening of the game by trying to win a penalty instead of scoring. I'm sure diving was pretty much on its way out about a year ago. No one dared do it (except Suarez obviously) because they knew they'd be villanised by the media. Foreign players had started to realise the media here were all over you if you dived. This season it's gone completely the other way. Attackers are being lauded for winning penalties and goalkeeperrs are criticised for not moving out of the way. Surprise surprise it's led to an increase in diving from all over the place. Good point. But refs should give penalties when defenders just abuse the rules and knock people around in the knowledge they're safe unless they stick a leg out. There's a bizarre unwritten rule that you can only get a penalty for handball or a trip. No other kind of foul is a penalty, even if it's really obvious. Stop letting defenders do what they want and attackers will have a better chance of entertaining us, stamp down on the ****s diving about and it'll stop. Easy. At the moment it'll keep increasing because they're being rewarded and applauded.
Had to laff at this, sorry Happy! the only thing lacking was a splash. Edit: back push was a penalty.
Boyd dived. Sturridge dived. Both are a disgrace. Let's have it stopped, for ****'s sake. We used to be able to hold it as a badge of honour while laughing at Johnny Foreigner rolling around, but we can't now.
