I back the Liverpool manager 100% on this. He said it was obstruction and that is not a pen. Why don't you believe your own manager?
Fair play to you Blues. If we all call out our own players when they do it then the game as a whole will be much better off for it.
Not to dwell on this too much but the BBC football page has done a diving article (are they reading us??) I found this statistic. Most bookings for simulation by club (since August 2008) Tottenham - 13 Chelsea - 12 Manchester United - 12 Arsenal - 8 Liverpool - 8 Source: Opta This is just the ones rightly or wrongly booked. We all know if referees were 100% certain someone had dived the figures would be higher. For a club to be on this list with just one booking is one too many so don't get smug that maybe your club has fewer cards. Lets not get into a diatribe about who's club dives more or less, and focus instead that these clubs are the ones most in contention for the title and all have brought in top foreign players for a number of years now that the English players who were in the youth team 5-10 years ago are now the stars of today and are emulating that transposed culture. I wholly agree that many managers and coaches sometimes may publicly condemn diving or at most change the subject yet in reality actively promote and encourage it. It is at odds with the win at all costs ethos within most top teams. We saw this with Brendan Rodgers stating how he didn't like shirt swapping at halftime. He wants that 'them and us' attitude throughout the whole match and no room for sportsmanship. This is not me having a go at Brendan Rodgers, just highlighting how all top teams condition their players to win and cultivate a siege mentality. Shirt swapping after the match is OK because a result has been decided.
Blimey, an eminently sensible thread and highly readable. Congrats to all. Share this cake out. But, Oscar can't have any. Even if they did name an acting award after him......
Chelsea players are as bad as or even more than those of other teams. You cannot hope to take the moral high ground here. Ramirez, Oscar, Torres and many others have dived so shut up you jackass
