What to do with Bale?

This 'diving' thing is becoming a real issue now seeing as how today's booking was his 5th of the season.

Whether you think he dives, is being targeted by refs or is actually being fouled, what do you think AVB should do, as manager, to deal with this problem?

Personally, I think he sometimes goes down too easily and sometimes too obviously (throwing the arms up in the air etc) - not true 'dives' - talk to Mr Cazorla about that, but certainly looking to get a cheap FK/Pen.

Interested to hear other opinions!

 

This thread will invite a wumfest.

Tin hats on, lads!

 

ship him off to spain where he'll fit in

 

I'm sat here like this (minus the Joker costume )

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He's being booked for challenges that other players are getting free-kicks for. Sessegnon today was a great example.

He simply has to stop going to ground in positions where there's any chance the ref will misinterpret it. He should've gone on and shot today, then pointed out the foul afterwards.
His reputation is in place now, so he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt, quite the opposite, in fact.

 

From Bale's interview post-match:

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"This is the same again - three times now I've been clipped and I've been booked for no reason. People keep saying I dive but if you're clipped it's not a dive. Referees just have to look a bit closer.

That's the third time now I've been clipped and booked for no reason again. There's nothing I can do, the referees need to look a bit closer. People think I'm diving when there's contact. If there's contact it's a penalty or free kick, there's nothing I can do. If there's contact, what do you want me to do - hit my head on the floor? I have to put my hands down to protect myself. If people kick me, I'm going to go down. It doesn't bother me, people keep saying I'm diving but it doesn't bother me whatsoever. It's a foul and I know it myself."

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The 'It doesn't bother me' actually bothers me as a fan because if he keeps getting booked and missing matches then that's an issue for the entire team.

 

That to me suggests Bale believes if he is touched, he has a "right" to go down, which is cheating imo, if Bale believes he has right to go down then he has to accept if the ref believes he went to the floor to win a decision then he has a "right" to be booked.

I love Bale as a player, not in question and he seems a nice chap, just this area of his game I want to see stamped out.

 

I don't think he could of stayed on his feet though because of the pace he was going at.

 

Loads of players, not just Bale, do it and it's a joke. Contact doesn't equal a foul. The FA needs to either re-establish football as a semi-contact sport and tell players to man up and stay on their feet rather than going down like wimpy 13 year olds, or introduce a proper advantage system which encourages players to stay on their feet.

This whole, 'contact = foul and not a dive' attitude is pathetic.

 

It's about time he pointed out refs letting him be kicked all over the place

It's the only way to get them to pay attention

Something Alex Ferguson has been doing for years

 

Is that Jenkinson as a kid...or Carloza....or Walcott...or Pires...or Leiman...or Cole...etc?

 

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Foul.

 

Yes its a contact sport, after the tackling player as touched the ball. He was clipped, he DOES have the right to go down as its a foul.



*Ahhh PNP has trumped me

 

Must admit that shows the contact on the knee to be much more than I thought.

Could he stay on his feet? I reckon so. Is he fouled? I reckon so again.

This is a problem for the FA to sort out and filter down to refs. Players go down easy all the time and get the decision and even with replays people say "he has a right to go down" and other nonsense so it needs to be clarified what is and isn't diving. Either going down under contact when you could probably stay on your feet is a dive and booking, no foul or it is a foul. At the moment players go down "easy" several times a game yet there's only certain incidents that get punished for it, whilst some have no decision made and others get rewarded for it. I don't even mind to much which one the FA choose but you can't leave it as it is because it's totally out of hand, like what does and doesn't constitute a handball.

 

It's a bit of a double edged sword though.- if u don't go down, the ref gives you nothing. You've only got to look at every shove in the back of Ade today from cuellar and oshea. Ade didn't go down, sessegnon did in exactly the same reverse situation.

Look at Suarez against stoke. His shirt was almost being pulled off of him but if he hadnt have gone to his knees, he wouldn't have got a pen, so IMO, he's got every right to go down.

Unfortunately bales name is now tarnished and he'll get nothing. But at the same time, staying on your feet (if he actually can) will not win free kicks and pens which are rightly deserved.

 

If he's touched it's a foul. End of. However so many players seem to get touched and not go down that going down when you are touched but perhaps not touched to the point where you're forced down is seen as a dive. If someone makes contact with you before the ball then it should be a foul but the difficulty is that if players don't go down then they're unlikely to get a foul given even if there's contact. As such players will go down given enough contact, even if the contact isn't enough to force them down, because they feel that they need to to get the correct decision.

Of course players like Bale, Suarez etc. have gone down with no contact and that's deplorable, I despise that. But when there is contact it should probably be a foul, and if some players feel they need to go to ground to get the correct decision then they will.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest what you're saying is nonsense, just that those that say he's dived there and turn around and say at other times they have a right to go down is nonsense.

The problem with saying that a player has the right to make the most of it, for me is that they're forcing the ref to make a decision. For me you should always try to play on when you've got the ball but the idea that this is a bookable dive is equally flawed. Basically what players are being told is that they have to play ref and decide whether there's enough of a foul that allows them to go down.

 

Can we dispute a yellow card?

 

Nope. He's had 3 incorrectly and we can't appeal the ban. Stupid rule.