I was discussing this with a friend earlier. I think Rogers' response that "it's not Suarez's job" was more offensive. He essentially was suggesting players shoul go out there doing whatever they can to get the win, break all the rules they want, and it's up to the ref to catch them at it, or that refs are wrong to give the benefit of the doubt to players as they're under no obligation. That isn't football that I want to watch.
I fully accept sometimes rules will be broken, but this should be limited to those that are caught up in the moment, rush of blood to the heads, wound up players, etc. and shouldn't be from people setting out to cheat their way to victory.
I don't believe suarez intended to cheat in this circumstance, but it's harder to give the benefit of the doubt to a player who has a history of cheating (especially when he has shown no remorse).
I also think Liverpool and their fans make things worse. Balotelli could easily be the press's bad guy du jour. He has done enough things wrong, but when he does man city come out and say "yeah, he's wrong, we're trying to get him to grow up, but it's hard because he's balotelli", and everyone accepts it. Balotelli is a character who only tends to really get criticised when he is failing to produce on the pitch.
Suarez doesn't have that deficiency.
I think if liverpool and their fans accepted that for now Suarez is the press's bad guy of the moment, and revelled in the pantomime villainy of it, the reaction would be less extreme. I'm sure people criticise him more because Liverpool defend things that at times are indefensible, claiming persecution/conspiracy and start looking to blame others. Yes the ref should have spotted it, but it's not his fault suarez decided to boot the ball that he thought would be called dead into the goal.
I fully accept sometimes rules will be broken, but this should be limited to those that are caught up in the moment, rush of blood to the heads, wound up players, etc. and shouldn't be from people setting out to cheat their way to victory.
I don't believe suarez intended to cheat in this circumstance, but it's harder to give the benefit of the doubt to a player who has a history of cheating (especially when he has shown no remorse).
I also think Liverpool and their fans make things worse. Balotelli could easily be the press's bad guy du jour. He has done enough things wrong, but when he does man city come out and say "yeah, he's wrong, we're trying to get him to grow up, but it's hard because he's balotelli", and everyone accepts it. Balotelli is a character who only tends to really get criticised when he is failing to produce on the pitch.
Suarez doesn't have that deficiency.
I think if liverpool and their fans accepted that for now Suarez is the press's bad guy of the moment, and revelled in the pantomime villainy of it, the reaction would be less extreme. I'm sure people criticise him more because Liverpool defend things that at times are indefensible, claiming persecution/conspiracy and start looking to blame others. Yes the ref should have spotted it, but it's not his fault suarez decided to boot the ball that he thought would be called dead into the goal.