Diving

I am sick and tired of these highly paid footballers cheating by diving for free kicks and penalties. Another couple of examples last night by Man U players. Di Maria had the nerve to protest and ok got what he deserved with a red card for pulling the ref about. As far as I am concerned diving should be a straight red card, no messing. It is difficult sometimes for referees, and they will get a few calls wrong, but then there is an appeals procedure so no problem, just get them off the pitch. Get caught a second time and a 10 match ban to follow. It needs sorting so clubs should also be fined every time one of their players does it. I have heard young lads discussing diving and the best way to do it, this must be stopped.

Quoted from oldun

I am sick and tired of these highly paid footballers cheating by diving for free kicks and penalties. Another couple of examples last night by Man U players. Di Maria had the nerve to protest and ok got what he deserved with a red card for pulling the ref about. As far as I am concerned diving should be a straight red card, no messing. It is difficult sometimes for referees, and they will get a few calls wrong, but then there is an appeals procedure so no problem, just get them off the pitch. Get caught a second time and a 10 match ban to follow. It needs sorting so clubs should also be fined every time one of their players does it. I have heard young lads discussing diving and the best way to do it, this must be stopped.

Yes but these bans need to be put in place by UEFA and FIFA and not just the FA.

Not sure about anybody else but the diving has reached such a level that I hardly watch Premier league football anymore. It makes me sick and angers me. It's about time something was done, what is annoying is it wouldn't take long to sort them all out. These players are cunning, it's part of their game and they are adept at cheating their opponents and the referee. The ref can't be expected to get it right all the time. We need to have a panel sitting on a Monday morning and dishing out bans like confetti - you just watch it stop.

Quoted from promotion plaice

Yes but these bans need to be put in place by UEFA and FIFA and not just the FA.

Agree, needs to be world wide and very soon.

Quite shocking to see how low Man Utd have gone with this, Giggs was always good enough to beat his man and didn't need to resort to such desperate attempts to con the ref as Di Maria and Zanu-wotsit last night. Wonder how he feels as part of the staff watching that, it's surely been brought in by Van Gaal.

To the main point, yes it needs fixing but I fear it's one of those things we're stuck with if we're relying on the clowns at the top level to do anything.

Man Utd are really crap now,

I have always enjoyed watching them since Munich in 58,

The team now is full of divers and overpaid prima donna 's

I have never seen a United team pass the ball back so often,

If they can not pass it backwards they just hoof it up the field.

Quoted from grimsby pete

Man Utd are really crap now,

I have always enjoyed watching them since Munich in 58,

The team now is full of divers and overpaid prima donna 's

I have never seen a United team pass the ball back so often,

If they can not pass it backwards they just hoof it up the field.

I'm not bothered either way about them but I do think Van Gaal is a pretender, he's spent fortunes on midfielders and forwards and anyone will eyes can see they badly need the defence sorting out. He is ridiculously arrogant, his English isn't up to scratch and I think he'll be found out before long. His record is excellent though, I suppose that alone will buy him time.

For Man Utd you only have to look at their skipper...he lead by example a couple of weeks ago falling over thin air when "expecting" contact...i understand taking evasive action to avoid contact, self protection to avoid possible injury, but if you avoid the contact then why the need to fall over afterwards....other than attempting to con the ref.

Last night, 70 mins onwards, the referee was questioned over two decisions by the T.V commentary team, Di Maria and the other fella ..Jan wotsit...."big call by the referee here"....and on both he was proven right.

Jan wotsit has accumulated several of those now, its not just one offence, he is a serial offender and should be taken to task for it.

Refs need to call these dives correctly and then book them.  This needs to happen on a consistent basis.  It will probably get worse before the problem is addressed effectively.  

I think the pundits have to take some responsibility for eradicating diving from the game.

Just last weekend we had Alan Shearer and Ruud Gullit arguing on MOTD that Sam Vokes of Burnley should've thrown himself to the ground in order to win a penalty. They claimed (rightly or wrongly) that players need to hit the ground in order to get a decision from the ref.

Then last night Shearer's saying Januzaj has thrown himself to the ground to get a penalty and it's pure cheating.

There is a difference, of course - Vokes was fouled, Januazj wasn't - but the problem is the mentality of throwing yourself to the ground to get a decision. This is the bit that needs to change.

If players had more trust in referees, and if they believed they would get free kicks and penalties for fouls that don't necessarily force them to the ground, then maybe they'd not chuck themselves all over the place all the time.

One thing is for sure - pundits can't argue that players should hit the deck in order to convince referees. That's the root of this problem, which is why it made Shearer and Gullit look like complete idiots.

Just had a look and Akinde has scored 10 from the spot so far this season,not sure if all the fouls were on him but he's perhaps one of those sort of players that can be very effective at conning referees,he does go down quite often with very little contact in the games I've seen him play. Still a good striker though   UTM.

It's why we need video replays

Quoted from Grimal

Just had a look and Akinde has scored 10 from the spot so far this season,not sure if all the fouls were on him but he's perhaps one of those sort of players that can be very effective at conning referees,he does go down quite often with very little contact in the games I've seen him play. Still a good striker though   UTM.

Akinde reminds me of Jack Lester when it comes to "winning" penalties....doesnt necessarily dive but invites the challenge and goes over....love it when its for you...hate it when its against..

Quoted from moosey_club

Akinde reminds me of Jack Lester when it comes to "winning" penalties....doesnt necessarily dive but invites the challenge and goes over....love it when its for you...hate it when its against..

As he did at our place ,  invited challenge got it and penalty .  As you say love it if it was for us .

I don't think there was any great doubt about his penalty at BP. Toto got himself turned than bustled into Akinde from behind so that looked to me more of a case of the defender being at fault than the forward looking for it.

Lots of clumsy defenders at this level, I suppose!

Hats off to the ref last night, a lot would (and have in the past(when they were good)) buckled under the pressure of being at Old Trafford.

That Januzaj kid needs to up his diving game, wouldn't be surprised to see him sent on a month's loan to Gateshead.

Agree - I thought the ref was superb last night

Quoted from RichMariner

I think the pundits have to take some responsibility for eradicating diving from the game.

Just last weekend we had Alan Shearer and Ruud Gullit arguing on MOTD that Sam Vokes of Burnley should've thrown himself to the ground in order to win a penalty. They claimed (rightly or wrongly) that players need to hit the ground in order to get a decision from the ref....One thing is for sure - pundits can't argue that players should hit the deck in order to convince referees. That's the root of this problem, which is why it made Shearer and Gullit look like complete idiots.

A few weeks ago Trevor Sinclair as pundit on MOTD2 said diving was 'a skill.'   A completely ridiculous comment to make; thankfully the presenter and journalist disagreed with him. But Robbie Savage didn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrTUABZtwZ4

Idiocy.

Quoted from moosey_club

Akinde reminds me of Jack Lester when it comes to "winning" penalties....doesnt necessarily dive but invites the challenge and goes over....love it when its for you...hate it when its against..

Yes indeed. That's a sort of halfway house between standing up and taking a dive untouched. This was the method Franny Lee used to perfection.

Norman Buck who passed away the other week, a fine local player in the family tradition, demonstrated this technique to me many moons ago.

Quoted from Abdul19

Hats off to the ref last night, a lot would (and have in the past(when they were good)) buckled under the pressure of being at Old Trafford.

That Januzaj kid needs to up his diving game, wouldn't be surprised to see him sent on a month's loan to Gateshead.

on the next series of Splash with Tom Daly

Quite surprised that Ashley Young didn't take to throwing himself about alongside his team-mates last night. Always been their number one for trying to con the ref but seems he's lost his crown to Januzaj

The dive by Januzaj was spectacularly bad. He must have been 3 or 4 feet away from the defender when he went down. Sad thing is, he could have got to the ball and squared it for a certain equaliser. They deserved to go out just for that incident without mentioning the Di Maria one, which was almost as bad.

Quoted from ginnywings

The dive by Januzaj was spectacularly bad. He must have been 3 or 4 feet away from the defender when he went down. Sad thing is, he could have got to the ball and squared it for a certain equaliser. They deserved to go out just for that incident without mentioning the Di Maria one, which was almost as bad.

When you saw how far he'd gone past his man before taking the plunge it really didn't make sense

As you say he could have picked a pass from where he was and Utd could have been back in it but no. - he chose to cheat and quite rightly got booked

Given the number of bookings he's had surely he should be up before the FA for bringing the game into disrepute

If they are serious about cleaning up the game, then this 'tactic' needs to be clamped down on

People underestimate the role fans should play in eradicating this from the game.

The problem, like many in football, is that many fans are utterly incapable of pointing out the problems within their own club, and remain divided on traditional lines - prefering to see issues like this as a competition similar to the match itself. "Club x is worse than Club Y, and Club Z never get punished for it..." blah blah balderdash - you see it every week from these fans, mainly fans of Premiership clubs, and legitimised by the shite spouted by supposed top-level managers and pundits.

I was extremely heartened to hear Alan Connell booed and given stick by town fans when he  clearly threw himself to the ground whilst playing for us a few times. It's not something I want to watch, and certainly not something I'd want to become common at this club.

Will we ever see fans of Prem clubs booing their own players for blatantly cheating? No, because they are, on the whole, utter divs.

On the other hand, I find it really frustrating to see our players like Mackreth, Jolley and Arnold, trying to play proper football, beat men and dribble the ball, only to be barged and chopped at by clogging defenders.

If anything I would like to see our players diving a bit more.  OK, not the Ashley Young-style sprawls, but looking to run at defenders, push it past and look for a leg to go over in the box.  Even Palmer, for a big guy, gets a lot of grief off defenders and could have had a penalty on Saturday if he;d been a bit more astute.

Each to their own, but I couldn't bring myself to cheer on a bunch of flipping cheats.

There's a reason the referee is stood in the middle, and that's to determine whether an offence has been committed. They don't get it right all the time but I'm fine with that - it's part of the game (to an extent) and always has been.

If players get fouled, then fine - free kick. If they haven't, then they should be playing on and either trying to score or trying to get the ball back - not looking for a foul.

Quoted from ska face

Each to their own, but I couldn't bring myself to cheer on a bunch of flipping cheats.

There's a reason the referee is stood in the middle, and that's to determine whether an offence has been committed. They don't get it right all the time but I'm fine with that - it's part of the game (to an extent) and always has been.

If players get fouled, then fine - free kick. If they haven't, then they should be playing on and either trying to score or trying to get the ball back - not looking for a foul.

Absolutely spot on!

Quoted from FishOutOfWater

Quite surprised that Ashley Young didn't take to throwing himself about alongside his team-mates last night. Always been their number one for trying to con the ref but seems he's lost his crown to Januzaj

He was too busy trying to get Bellerin sent off wasn't he?

Its sad enough that top quality players get a reputation for diving (Owen, Bale, Ronaldo, Ginola), let alone over-rated ones like Young, or that Watford chap in the ToTW thread, or half a dozen recent Gateshead players.

Whilst I'm on my soapbox; the bbc did some article on which offences are the worst - spitting, diving, horrendous challenges.  I think I missed the point.  Surely all need to be deterred, not us argue over the least bad.  Cisse and Evans got 7 & 6 game bans, shouldn't DiMaria get that or more (DiCanio got 11 GAMES; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/199792.stm )?

That Januzaj is the most over-hyped and overrated young player in Europe I think.

Never thought he merited all the hype just because he scored a couple of goals against Sunderland last season.

Didn't see the Chelski / PSG match last night but I heard it was just ever more gamesmanship

This one looks like a very worthy Oscar nomination

[youtube]OWwGjwO1pTs[/youtube]

Surely if players can get punished for things that the ref misses but are picked up on camera then this can be dealt with the same way?