Warm-Up Friendlies

[Tom Halsey]

Not often you see a red in a friendly, never mind two.

Sterling's maybe slightly harsh.

Seem to remember suggestions from a certain Frenchman that Martin Taylor should never play football again for a tackle that basically looks identical to this at the point of impact.

Valencia is obviously a **** but it was a terrible tackle. Not actually aiming this at you specifically because it seems that everyone has reacted in the same way but I don't understand how someone puts in a tackle that could easily break a leg, someone reacts with an angry reaction that realistically isn't hurting anybody (and I imagine if anyone here was tackled like that they'd probably be fairly hacked off too), and it's supposedly the tackler who is hard done by. Sterling's red is absolutely stone-wall.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, no complaints from me. Ridiculous challenge.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Two England games in a day is all a bit much, watched the whole 86 quater-final earlier.

Glad I not the only one.

 

[Eds]

People who use still images of tackles are the worst. It was a dangerous tackle, but not because of that bit. You can't see it from that image (how strange, eh?!) but Sterling's leg is actually about half a foot in front of Valencia's and goes sailing past it - there's no impact at that point there as you seem to be suggesting. Just curious, have you actually even seen the tackle?

The dodgy part is his right leg that comes swinging into the back of Valencia's leg and bends his ankle.

 

[Tom Halsey]

People who use still images of tackles are the worst. It was a dangerous tackle, but not because of that bit. You can't see it from that image (how strange, eh?!) but Sterling's leg is actually about half a foot in front of Valencia's and goes sailing past it - there's no impact at that point there as you seem to be suggesting. Just curious, have you actually even seen the tackle?

Strange post. You've totally missed the point. How is any of this mitigating in any way? It's clearly higher than the ball, whether he misses him or not, just as a tackle can be dangerous whether it actually breaks a leg or not.

I mean, judging from the logic in the part I bolded, any tackle which is fortunate enough not to make contact automatically isn't dangerous. I'm a bit at a loss as to why you've made a flippant post about a still image that clearly shows a tackle that is over the ball, studs up, and with both feet off the ground. If that alone doesn't demonstrate a dangerous tackle to you then we have very different definitions of the term.

I did see the tackle fwiw, although the screenshot isn't mine.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Sterling actually took the ball before he hit Valencia. Now, we all know since football became a non-contact sport, such tackles are generally fouls and usually cards too, but it did deaden his momentum and that screen shoot looks infinitely worse than it actually was.

 

[Ikki]

You must be kidding T_C, seriously. Surely you've seen that image before the actual footage because it is really deceiving. It's more understandable than the rant about it ending Valencia's career . Here's the video, from 44 seconds on there is a slow mo of the tackle exactly at the angle of the photo.

That's a yellow, max. Pretty common kind of tackle in the EPL TBF. Valencia probably just overly scared because it's so close to the WC and he wouldn't want to be injured for any little tackle. Unnecessary for Sterling to slide, but nothing really that malicious to get that kind of reaction.

 

[Nate]

He's just not that type of player.

haha

 

[flibbertyjibber]

So Sterling has taken tips from Scholes how to tackle. So what. Far more concerned about the injury to Ox. Looks a bad one which might be a longterm one too. Pray I am wrong but can't see him being in the world cup.

 

[wpdavid]

So Sterling has taken tips from Scholes how to tackle. So what. Far more concerned about the injury to Ox. Looks a bad one which might be a longterm one too. Pray I am wrong but can't see him being in the world cup.

Sod's law isn't it. By some distance our best player on the night looks like he's picked up a bad one that'll keep him out of the WC.

 

[Uppercut]

They should just have a proper fight so we could watch Sterling get pumped.

 

[marc71178]

You must be kidding T_C, seriously. Surely you've seen that image before the actual footage because it is really deceiving. It's more understandable than the rant about it ending Valencia's career . Here's the video, from 44 seconds on there is a slow mo of the tackle exactly at the angle of the photo.

That's a yellow, max. Pretty common kind of tackle in the EPL TBF. Valencia probably just overly scared because it's so close to the WC and he wouldn't want to be injured for any little tackle. Unnecessary for Sterling to slide, but nothing really that malicious to get that kind of reaction.

Absolute bollocks is it a yellow max, it's a clear red and if it had been done by someone like Rooney or Jones rather than a Liverpool player you'd have been saying that.

 

[Ikki]

Absolute bollocks is it a yellow max, it's a clear red and if it had been done by someone like Rooney or Jones rather than a Liverpool player you'd have been saying that.

You don't half talk ****. Sterling gets the ball and his trailing leg gets Valencia on the follow-through. Max yellow.

This is dirty though and more likely to have injured a player:

 

[sledger]

This is a lot like the time Steven Gerrard went to make a song request and his trailing arm caught the DJ on the follow-through.

 

[duffer]

Saw it a couple of times. Red was harsh.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Sterling actually took the ball before he hit Valencia. Now, we all know since football became a non-contact sport, such tackles are generally fouls and usually cards too, but it did deaden his momentum and that screen shoot looks infinitely worse than it actually was.

Yeah but my point from my last post still stands. So he got the ball, but if he hadn't (and no-one can actually guarantee getting the ball before making a challenge) then the tackle is dangerous. I mean, I'm sure we've all seen and agreed with sendings off before where the ball has been played. I recall a two footed, studs up challenge that actually got the ball rightly receiving a red card in a Crystal Palace vs Hull game this year, although annoyingly I can't remember who it actually was. I just don't think what the end result of a challenge was is particularly relevant to assessing how dangerous a tackle is. The logical conclusion of that would be that all tackles that don't cause an injury are fine and all tackles that do are red cards.

Were there some deleted posts here btw?

 

[Ikki]

If my aunt had balls...

Literally every tackle is a few inches away from being dangerous. That it wasn't is exactly why it wasn't a red. The ref seemed to be swayed into sending him off based on Valencia's overreaction. This is a non-argument, it wasn't even the worst tackle in the game.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Literally every tackle is a few inches away from being dangerous. That it wasn't is exactly why it wasn't a red.

A tackle that isn't "dangerous" in the sense that it's not high, studs up etc can break a leg, yeah. Not denying that, and for clarity I'm certainly not saying that these tackles should also be banned. They are just unfortunate.

Conversely it is also possible as we know to make a dangerous challenge that doesn't have any consequences, just as it is also possible to bowl a beamer in cricket and not injure someone, and it's possible to drink and drive without causing an accident. They are still banned though, whatever the consequences; we don't say that because nothing bad happened means the act was fine in either of those two cases.

Sterling's tackle fits all the usual descriptions of a dangerous tackle other than being two-footed.

My last post on this anyway as my last three posts have all basically been the same point worded differently so it's going round in circles.

 

[Uppercut]

Sterling actually took the ball before he hit Valencia. Now, we all know since football became a non-contact sport, such tackles are generally fouls and usually cards too, but it did deaden his momentum and that screen shoot looks infinitely worse than it actually was.

I agree with this, but it's so horrendously inappropriate in a pre-World Cup friendly that I think the ref made the right call. It's hard to believe that Sterling didn't have the United/Liverpool connection in mind when he decided to fly in so unnecessarily, and had Valencia done it to Sterling the English media would quite fairly be absolutely furious.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Ox 10 days - 3 weeks. Sorry but he has to be sent home, players don't play well at world cups with injuries. To replace him i'd call up Stones as I have no faith in Smalling or Jones.