*Official* English Football Season 2011-12

[Nate]

Jol absolutely giving it to Hughes. Next London Derby should be fun.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, definitely rooting for City. Anyone but United really. Apart from Spurs, don't want them to win anything either, for obvious reasons.

 

[Woodster]

So what is it that players are getting red cards for these days that you find so objectionable? In the majority of cases, I really can't think of many intances in which there are decisions I would deem to be incredibly poor. Or soft. Most red cards are given for professional fouls or second bookable offences. The amount of genuinely "soft" sending offs, as you term them, are in the minority.

Some of the bookings are ridiculous, and of course it isn't difficult now to collect two yellows in a game, it's not necessarily getting a straight red, though the Rodwell one mentioned was a shocker!

That's to do with referees, not the actual playing of the game though.

Diving isn't a new phenomenon either. To my knowledge it's been talked about since at least the late 60s, possibly earlier.

Diving isn't new, Francis Lee used to throw himself about in the penalty area, but the frequency of this has increased beyond all recognition, and not just in the penalty box. Nowadays it's done to get the opponent booked or red carded, why else would they roll around when they've got the free kick and barely been touched!!

 

[sledger]

What he's getting at is that diving isn't new, and neither are poor refereeing decisions.

 

[Woodster]

What he's getting at is that diving isn't new, and neither are poor refereeing decisions.

I know, that's what I said. But it is happening far too frequently, that's my point!

 

[Furball]

There's a difference between diving and being soft.

edit: what really bugs me is the way defenders diving is treated differently. Put a defender under pressure in a tight spot, breathe on him, defender goes down and almost always wins a free kick.Attacker does that in the penalty box and we need to chase it out the sport.

 

[sledger]

There's a difference between diving and being soft.

edit: what really bugs me is the way defenders diving is treated differently. Put a defender under pressure in a tight spot, breathe on him, defender goes down and almost always wins a free kick.Attacker does that in the penalty box and we need to chase it out the sport.

It's an interesting point, the one thing I would add to that though is that the consequences of a "successful" dive on the edge of your own box are likely to be far less severe than one on the edge of the opponents box. Well, arguably anyway.

One thing that gets me is the amount of blatant fouling that goes on in the box when there's a corner or something. The act of "putting pressure on the goalkeeper" has basically become synonymous with overtly obstructing him. Similarly the amount of shirt-pulling that goes on is just annoying, and ought to be penalised more strictly. I don't tune in hoping to see a rugby match ffs.

 

[vic_orthdox]

It does have a lot of the, "Well, if we're all doing it, they can't penalise us!" feeling about it.

 

[Furball]

It's an interesting point, the one thing I would add to that though is that the consequences of a "successful" dive on the edge of your own box are likely to be far less severe than one on the edge of the opponents box. Well, arguably anyway.

If the referee doesn't buy it then you've just fallen over and allowed the player putting pressure on you a free run at your own goal. It is every bit as bad as an attacker falling over a blade of grass near you and getting you sent off.

 

[sledger]

If the referee doesn't buy it then you've just fallen over and allowed the player putting pressure on you a free run at your own goal. It is every bit as bad as an attacker falling over a blade of grass near you and getting you sent off.

Is it?

If a defender dives and the ref buys it, freekick on the edge of your own area. If he doesn't buy it, what you said would happen.

If an attacker dives, and the ref buys it. The attacking team probably get a penalty or a decent position to have a shot from. If the ref doesn't buy it, nothing much will happen.

The difference for mine is, that in the worst case scenario, the only player who's really going to suffer from any of the outcomes is the defender.

Cheating is cheating and all that, and I don't think there's any place for diving anywhere. But for me it's a lot more unsavoury when an attacking player does it, as it's likely to be able to con his way into a goal-scoring opportunity. Mind you, equivalently you could say a defender diving was just an attempt to deny the other team such an opportunity, so it essence it's not really a lot different.

Just strikes me as worse when an attacking player does it tbh, marginally anyway.

 

[grecian]

Hmm, one of my great pet hates about to be discussed on Talksport, so I'll switch to Kerrang!

Darlo, a really stupidly run club, are possibly going out of business. So do we all just say "well any business run that badly would go out of business", or do we say the entire structure of lower league football needs to be totally ****ed up, because of this one farcical club, obviously with ominous talk about this being the first of many, domino effect, which I don't really understand in football.. Regional and Part-time, will be mentioned, despite the fact that more and more teams in the conference are going Full-time, including recently Weymouth, who were recently also cited as a reason for the decimation of the lower Leagues. Then it will somehow be blamed on the Premier League, despite the fact that a lot more teams went into liquidation before the Premiership existed.

Well I think we can guess the way Talksport will go on the argument.

Get very tired of this, teams in the lower leagues get more money than they used too, crowds are up massively, football is still booming.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

So Everton sign a player from Man Utd. Which Everton midfielder out of Fellaini, Rodwell and Barkley is going to OT in the summer then?

 

[The Sean]

If Liverpool can't win the league, the best result for me would be Spurs winning it.

Would be the first time since 1961/62.

60/61, they finished 3rd in 61/62.

 

[sledger]

Just remembered this from a few weeks back:

That is, and I say this seriously, one of the most horrible pieces of clothing I have ever seen.

 

[sledger]

Hmm, one of my great pet hates about to be discussed on Talksport, so I'll switch to Kerrang!

Darlo, a really stupidly run club, are possibly going out of business. So do we all just say "well any business run that badly would go out of business", or do we say the entire structure of lower league football needs to be totally ****ed up, because of this one farcical club, obviously with ominous talk about this being the first of many, domino effect, which I don't really understand in football.. Regional and Part-time, will be mentioned, despite the fact that more and more teams in the conference are going Full-time, including recently Weymouth, who were recently also cited as a reason for the decimation of the lower Leagues. Then it will somehow be blamed on the Premier League, despite the fact that a lot more teams went into liquidation before the Premiership existed.

Well I think we can guess the way Talksport will go on the argument.

Get very tired of this, teams in the lower leagues get more money than they used too, crowds are up massively, football is still booming.

Yeah, generally hate these types of arguments as well. Like you say, when these sorts of things happen it's inevitably down something to do with the way the club is being run or some other factors to do with the club specifically. Not "the state of the game" or The Premiership, as some very reputable journalists would have you believe.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, every few months on Talksport, Durham brings out his 'make the prem a closed shop because it would financially benefit those who aren't good enough to stay in it' argument, tosser

 

[Furball]

Lack of financial regulation is one of my biggest bugbears about football.

 

[GIMH]

The problem is that if it's not done universally, you're going to struggle to get regulations that associations want to impose.

I despise the lack of ambition my club has shown for the bulk of our time since relegation, but I can't argue too much, on the other side of things, with the way we've been managed, from a book-balancing perspective.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Just remembered this from a few weeks back:

That is, and I say this seriously, one of the most horrible pieces of clothing I have ever seen.

Weird photo to start with, the torso looks disproportionately small compared to the head and hands.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Wow. Liverpool playing a 5 man defence with Kuyt the lone man up front - at home to Stoke. Adventurous.