All this about cheating and whether its acceptable is a difficult one. Myself, I broke a few rules delibrately when i played, I punched the ball in the net to claim a goal and got away with it, there was plenty of times when i went down playing for the tackle because i knew the player was on his finally warning, there was even a time that i deliberately followed through and caught somebody because they had kicked me off the ball early. Am i proud of it, no, would i do it again if i was still playing, probably yes, and the only reason i can give is that they would have done the same to me if it was the other way around, so when i was playing for a team i didn't think that i had gave 100% if i didn't take every single little advantage that i could get whether by hook or by crook.
Well I hope thats not aimed at me Munky, I never said I agreed or like cheating, I just said I'd prefer to have a team who passed the ball and dived than a long ball team who didn't. If you felt that strongly then you wouldn't go to any game ever because they all do it, we do it. The managers don't complain about there own players, so are they just as repugnant? If Chris Hughton says he didn't see Grant Holt falling over to get a penalty will you be screaming for him to get sacked? Surely you wouldn't want a muppet in charge of our club? No of course you wouldn't. I shall look forward to your articles declaring that one of our players isn't fit to wear the shirt when he feigns injury or goes down easy. You must surely despise B Johnson, Tierney and McVeigh given there antics in the past. Darren Huckerby advocates going down with any contact, do you hate him? I didn't say everyon had to play the beautiful way, I said that long ball should be riduculed in this country. There are plenty enough entertaining variations in the game without this vile disease coursing through the veins of English football. Why does there have to be room in the game for this style? Does anyone enjoy watching it? Is there any real skill to it? Is there any pride to be gained from it? Hitting long balls into the area for someone to flick on, what is the point in even playing football. You can watch it in the amateur leagues for free, why bother paying. I still find it suprising given the lack of success of English players that there are still people advocating this approach and thinking its perfectly acceptable. It shouldn't even be the norm in League Two and yet we have two teams in the top division doing it. And I'll reiterate to the self proclaimed "Guru", Stoke and West Ham are long ball, they just have better players doing it. I'd bet my house even Ipswich are more of a passing side than those two.
I guess you never watched IMO the greatest team ever, Brazil 1970. They were quite happy to hit balls from their own area to a man is space (not outer). Admittedly they could play any style but they weren't stuck in a pattern. Was England's 4th goal in WC66 so bad? It was a great ball from Moore to Hurst who ran on and scored. Our own Tommy Bryceland used to hit some great long balls in behind full backs to two wingers. Our winner in the 85 final came from a long ball into space.
I think there needs to be clarity between skillful long balls to players on side that then cut defenses open and the hopeless fingers crossed it'll find someone in the other half on our team hoofball
