Difference is Mane is skinny as hell. There will be times when he will get knocked over with ease. But when players like Ivanovic fling themselves despite how bulky he is you know it is a dive.
Think we were all buzzing yesterday, FLT. But your words hit the nail right on the head - we're 4th, have held the best (by far) team to come to St Marys by a superb team effort (ONE shot on goal all game!) and things could be 10000% worse! As for Chelsea, well, as has been recorded elsewhere here, they moaned ALL game at the ref, so he was probably fed up and didn't even bother about the penalty (the lino on that side - right in front of me - was crap all game, actually, so he wouldn't have seen it) because Fabregas was in his ear all game. Pelle was constantly blown up against for doing nothing but his job, Mane was fouled in the build up to their goal, Fabregas should have got a 2nd yellow for kicking the ball away ....... Plenty of talking points, but the main one was that I feared a thrashing yesterday and we were brilliant. Bring on the Arse - I reckon they're there for the taking if we play anywhere near as well.
Looking forward to watching the 90 minutes today after I download it. I shall keep a special look out for Chelsea's players ability to lose all strength in their legs, after coming within the sphere of a Saints player. I want to see if Alladyce's accusation really stands up..! [sorry] please log in to view this image
I think there is a media campaign, not against Chelsea, but to encourage diving. All the former players and commentators seem to think that contact=foul, particularly in the penalty area, and are presiding over a de facto change of the rules of the game in that direction. Fortunately not all Premier League and Football League referees listen to the drivel that the Neville brothers etc. spout on this subject, but it could very easily go that way. I would imagine that FIFA would love to see more goals scored in matches in order to boost the TV figures. By the way, I know that accidentally tripping someone counts as a foul, so I acknowledge that we were lucky to escape a penalty decision yesterday: my comments are directed at the pundits who continually drone on about players being "entitled" to go down when there is the merest hint of contact. In my mind, and in the spirit of the game, tripping someone means you make it impossible for them to remain upright, and doesn't mean giving them an excuse to throw themselves to the ground.
I made this point myself earlier. This is a recent change in attitude, in my view. As recently as 6 months ago, the consensus of pundit opinion was that a player should do his best to stay on his feet. Now it seems as though the pundit grapevine has got the word around - it's OK, the spirit of the game is secondary to winning fairly.
Its the new breed of pundits that have been drafted in. Shearer has been saying that players should go down for years. Owen has too. The older ones in general (like Lawrenson and Crooks) are playing along so they don't look old. Clarke Carlisle seems to be the only one of the 'retired in the past decade' that actually wants honesty.
One point that I haven't noticed being mentioned here was that in the Chelsea penalty area (near the end of the game) a Chelsea defender pulled back on Shane Long's arm, to stop him chasing after a loose ball before it went out for a throw in. If the ref had seen this, it should definitely have led to a penalty for Saints. So, either the ref didn't see it (and the linesmen were on the other side of the pitch/in the other half), or he did see it and considered that not giving Saints a penalty would even out the penalty decisions. So, we could complain that we could have been awarded a penalty, and we could have won, never mind drawn. Mind you, Tadic's penalty kicks are not as nailed on as Ricky's.
For me, this is part of the problem. There are a lot of fouls - particularly involving things like shirt pulling - that aren't given when the player stays on his feet but would be when/if the player throws himself to the floor. I think a lot of the time players now dive/go down easily to make it harder for a referee to ignore the foul that's been committed.
But we're not playing at the effing Alamo each week, we need to be a lot more proactive against Arse.
There's been no consensus though. One of the pundits I can point to is Savage. I can remember him saying that a player should try to stay on his feet, yet only the other day he was talking about contact and going down to give the referee an opportunity to award a free-kick. Granted that the more modern pundit tends to talk about contact, but there has been little uniformity to this opinion until recently. Now it's as if they are all on-message. I don't count Lawro in this, who continues to have his own opinion on anything. Funnily enough, the change coincides very well with Lawro's chum, Alan Hansen retiring from punditry. Clarke Carlisle is also intelligent enough to be confident in his own view, and not be led by others.
Thats why I like Hansen. Still don;t understand why so many hated him. Shearer and his 'definite contact' and 'entitled to go down' has grated on me for ages. He never says its a foul, just that there was definite contact. I still think Fabregas 'made' the contact and therefore it was not a penalty.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...mpton-must-sign-toby-alderweireld-permanently Interview with Matt Targett. He describes the incident as different. Goes on to say that we need to sign Toby (would never have thought of that). Suggests that a few clubs are interested in Targett, but points out he has just signed a new contract.
Wearing my Red & White tinted glasses means that Saints players never dive (although Sadio Mane appeared to have been shot, or at least clubbed, when he went down, with his arms in a Tom Daley-like position), so clearly any Saints player that goes down has definitely been viciously fouled, and couldn't keep upright, even though they are doing their best to continue running with the ball. Similarly, any Saints tackle is always fair and should never be seen as an attempt to unfairly impede an opponent. Morgan was just being polite when he left the pitch early.
