I have 2 football hates, i.e those things that tend to annoy me more than any others. Firstly it's time wasting, a curse which could easily be eradicated but tends only to be treated as a minor irritant by officials. On saturday Howard Webb warned the Norwich goalkeeper to speed things up from as early as the 8th min. Then in the 25th min he called over Grant Holt and warned him about his goalkeepers antics. From this point on Norwich were repeatedly told to speed things up. Surely an early yellow card would have solved the problem? Secondly why don't pundits call it the way it is? Diving is not simulation, it is cheating, and those diving are cheats and should be treated as such. Rant over, what are your pet football hates?
I get annoyed when everyone points out Liverpool are only 4 points off a champions league spot. What about arsenal, spurs, wba, us, and stoke???? I also get annoyed with the western mail and radio Wales. Grr.
time wasting is one of those things people have double standards with, when you're doing it its fine, when the opposition do it its not. for me i think the situation of diving in the box is one that can be improved - if a foul is committed, currently a player must fall (or dive) to the ground to get what the offence warrants, if he carries on and misses he gets rewarded for his honesty with nothing. play an advantage like rugby and if they miss then go back to the penalty. also, an opposition player kicking the ball away / holding up play by blocking the player from taking an early set piece, you used to get a yellow card, now its slowly crept back into the game and nothing seems to happening.....
Many things annoy me but I really would like to see goalkeepers get carded for simulation. Keepers have become so used to protection from the officials that it is almost impossible to score a goal in a challenge with them. If they lose the ball, they immediately fall to the floor, writhing about and claiming a foul. This is CHEATING pure and simple. When did you ever see a keeper booked for simulation? Someone might have but I have never seen it and it happens many times every week in our leagues. I admire all keepers for their bravery but I detest their antics when they lose the ball in a fair aerial challenge.
The second one is easily solved. Stop reading the Western Mail and stop listening to Radio Wales. But's it's true that Liverpool are only 4 points off a Champions League place, and they have a good chance of ending up in top 4.
What really gets me is the shirt pulling in the penalty area, there is no way the refs don't see it and for me their lack of punishing this offence has led to it becoming the norm over the last 5 years or so. Yes it used to happen, but players were much more crafty about it in years gone by and there was an element of "well played" for those types of things (standing on an attackers toes before he tries to jump, etc) - Yes I was a defender I just think it's got much more blatant and there is less panache now days with this type of erm...bending of the rules...
The best way to prevent time wasting is to stop the clock whenever the ball is out of play. The added bonus is that we should get an additional 10 minutes of football more than is allowed at present to reach the actual 90 minutes mark. EDIT: I don't have any evidence to provide to that, instead me and some others in our local pub decided to test it after some others had earlier claimed the refs were always accurate. Two tables, each with a stop watch. The ref added 2 or 3 minutes, and at the full whistle both stop watches were registering 81 minutes give or take about 15 seconds difference. We didn't include throw in's because football rules deem that as being "in play". The clocks were stopped for goalkicks, freekicks, goal celebrations and injury treatment on the pitch. Imagine what could change in those ten minutes, perhaps an equaliser last Saturday? The clock has been one of my many pet hates since then.
Apart from the things covered already I really don't like it when players make a claim for a throw-in that was so obviously not theirs. Book the buggers they'll soon stop.
Knobs like Joey Barton, John Terry and Luis Suarez. QPR, just QPR that's all I can say. Kick all 4 out of football and it would be a better game
disagree on suarez, for all his baggage, he is a world class footballer, in the top 5 attacking players in the league for me. p/s like the avatar
My pet hates are the following: 1 Diving/Simulation whatever you want to call it. 2 Shirt pulling, you get a corner and it's nothing more than a wrestling match. If the laws were properly interpreted then it would be a penalty every corner. 3 Taking free kicks and throw ins from where they should be taken. 4 Managers who won't admit there team were crap or out played etc and the best team won on the day. I could add more but I have to go out tonight.
Shielding the ball out of play - it's just obstruction. If you haven't touched the ball then you are not in control of it - so using your body to block off an opponent is just plain obstruction. I have no issue with blocking the player if you have your foot on the ball. In the words of the great Peter Griffin - it really "grinds my gears". I want a free kick given when this happens not a lousy goal kick. You all know what I mean. Grrrrrr
Was just about to write something like this. What makes me want to explode is when the ref blows up against the attacker who is just trying to play the ball!!!! Certain kinds of cheating seem to be tolerated, **** knows why.