Think Connolly runs Tufan close for trying to win fouls - Liam needs to tell them the refs are buying it less and less even the genuine ones !
Some players are good at it. Slater has won something like four penalties for us now. He knows when and how to go down. Coyle wins a lot of defensive free kicks too, by falling onto the ball with someone up behind him. Going back a few years Jozy Altidore won loads of fouls, he knew how to use his body and stay on the right side of the rules. Connolly I don't think is very convincing when he goes down and Tufan is just laughable.
It clearly went in off his hip. I think it’s one of those typical football fan things where people are suspicious of Tufan because he’s not English, so as they are expecting him to try to cheat that’s what they see.
Goals and assists are what forwards live and die by. Carvalho has 4 in 11. Omur has 1 in 7 so far, though granted he has significantly fewer minutes in that 7 games and will still be gaining experience of new league/surroundings etc. There's no disputing he's technically brilliant, just Carvalho proving to be more effective at this moment in time.
925/4 for Fabio, 323/1 for Abdus, so I take your point that it gets closer when you look at it like that. But then surely there is some onus on the player to make sure he's consistently on the pitch? There is mitigation in that respect with Omur being newly introduced to a very different environment though, and he'll surely play the majority of minutes going forward if he keeps current performances going.
Yes, Carvalho has scored more. But going on mistakes/losing the ball, Omur has been so much better. I think by the end of the season there won’t even be a debate and Omur will be the first name on the team sheet. Actually, second behind Coyle. But you know what I mean. I think we have found a gem in Omur. As always with players I don’t rate highly, I want Carvalho to prove me wrong. He just frustrates me (like Twine - and to some extent Longman, did) because you can see the technical ability is there. Decision making is a huge part though. When Carvalho went backwards on that counter attack against Leicester, I was so frustrated!
Does he persist with referring to Tufan with reference to the dives? What about his handball goal against Birmingham? I don't think I've seen him even mention it. But a player we had on loan for six months is defined by it. I presumed it was him on the wind up as when it happened there was a lot of debate about whether it was a dive, so it seems like he's daring someone to challenge him on it, but until now no one had, so it was just coming across as pretty weird.
Delap too, he would always be falling on his arse when keeping his feet might have created a good chance. But he's not Twine so who cares.
I think expectations play a huge part in how players are viewed. Ömür was a relatively unknown player to us (YouTube notwithstanding) and he's played well, so everyone is delighted with him. Carvalho arrived with colossal expectations so even scoring 4 goals in 11 isn't particularly impressing people, because we'd allowed ourselves to expect him to be at a level which was probably never realistic. Both have been good, but as McKechnie says, Carvalho has been more productive, and that's largely being overlooked. A similar thing happens with matches. Against Birmingham everyone expected a comfortable win even though we rarely get those. So a dominant but wasteful draw was immensely disappointing. Against Leicester we played fairly well, but with the same limitations we usually have, ie not actually creating a whole lot from our possession, still only got a draw, but everyone was happy and said it was a great performance, the stadium was bouncing and so on. All because our expectations of the game were different. I don't think the difference in performance between the two games was as big as the difference in reception was.
If we're listing players who go down too much, Zaroury has to be right up there too. He's embarrassing at times and I think it affects his game. He seems to have a real quality end product but too often the attack ends with him going down and getting nothing.
The performances between Leicester and Birmingham were different, bar as you say the usual not actually creating anything of much in the opposition final third. Admittedly helped by how different the opposition played, but still very different all the same
Some of the players are going over on a simple bump trying to win a foul, Oscar used to and he’s a big guy . The frustration is over this season many refs have inconsistently allowed the ‘ not giving it ‘ rule - . I’ve lost count of the times I’ve got frustrate watching attacking players do this and no foul is given - they haven’t learned , it’s like ‘I’ll get one eventually ‘ As for goals are Fabio and Omur strikers? Last point is Fabio regularly got caught in posession up until Saturday when after his goal he seemed a new player , or the one we thought we had - Omur showed intent from moment one IMO - think Omur appears to absolutely loves football , maybe Fabio sees it differently - only guessing it’s not FACT LOL
I spoke to a coach I really respect about this and he is massive on getting your smaller players to do it. Sub consciously referees will protect the little ones and due to their frame its easier for them to make it look like they've been fouled. Your example is a good example I've seen him do it myself. It's just his theory but since he told me it I am now spotting a lot of free kicks are given for fouls on smaller blokes.