Will a lack of discipline be our downfall?

[Pot noodles for everyone]

Further to something another poster said, our disicplinary record is shocking.

Do you think this is a side-effect of a deliberate attempt to intimidate opposition, to play a physical game or are we just going through an unlucky patch with refereeing decisions?

I do wonder too whether having a Uruguayan manager and Argie defender as coach means we are getting more "physical".

This isn't a whinge, just an attempt to understand why we pick up so many bookings of late. Let's face it - the way we distribute the ball and play the ball on the ground is much improved under Poyet and Taricco.

 

[Conkers]

I would say it's an unlucky patch with refs but when you swing your arms and punch/elbow people in the face then it's our own fault!

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

we're the BAD BOYS of the division

 

[BLOCK F]

Carrying on from where we started last season.It has to be sorted.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

If we continue in this vein, i.e. regular sendings off, then yes of course it will hamper us. We can't keep losing important players for 3 match spells and still expect to be challenging.

There's no excuse for either red so far this season, just acts of petulance that players of the experience of Greer and Sparrow should never be doing.

 

[Taybha]

yes

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

What worried me was Gus saying they were practising in training for 10 vs 11, almost as if they are expecting a player to be sent off regularly and so it's no big deal when it happens.

Maybe I'm reading too much into his comments though?

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

we should sign joey barton, ben thatcher and duncan ferguson

 

[edna krabappel]

I would say it's an unlucky patch with refs but when you swing your arms and punch/elbow people in the face then it's our own fault!

Is it really unlucky though?

Most of our many, many red cards in recent months have been for utterly stupid offences. Things that professional footballers should know far better than to get involved in. Or fouls that, by the laws of the game cannot possibly be construed as anything less than red card offences.

Look at Murray. Two deliberate handballs in the same game- how many players in history have ever been daft enough to do that? One red for getting involved in a slapping match with an opponent. Greer- getting involved in a slapping match with an opponent. Virgo- a ridiculous challenge at Leeds where he had no chance of winning the ball. Kuipers- a clear denial of a goalscoring opportunity. Sparrow- getting involved with an opponent. Arismendi- getting involved with an opponent.

Alright, one or two have been for two yellow cards, which is marginally more forgiveable, but come on, these are nearly all our own stupid fault.

I don't know what the answer is, other than absolutely clobbering them with monumental fines for every card. It must be possible, as some clubs clock up hardly any offences.

 

[Don Quixote]

Soon we will be so naughty and hard that the refs will be too scared to send our players off.

 

[El Presidente]

Further to something another poster said, our disicplinary record is shocking.

Do you think this is a side-effect of a deliberate attempt to intimidate opposition, to play a physical game or are we just going through an unlucky patch with refereeing decisions?

I do wonder too whether having a Uruguayan manager and Argie defender as coach means we are getting more "physical".

This isn't a whinge, just an attempt to understand why we pick up so many bookings of late. Let's face it - the way we distribute the ball and play the ball on the ground is much improved under Poyet and Taricco.

I think our record pre-Poyet was fairly poor too. The likes of El-Abd, Murray, OGH, Virgo and a few others mean that we seem to clock up a large number of red cards or suspensions for 5/10 bookings.

It's certainly tougher winning with just ten men.

Does anyone have the stats over the last five years?

 

[El Presidente]

On Tuesday at Northampton we could easily have ended up with 8 men. OGH was guilty of a horrendous two footed tackle, and Battimendi, after receiving a yellow, was involved in an off the ball incident that had Charlie Oatway(!) running down the touchline telling him to calm it.

There has been far too much ill discipline in recent seasons and no winners as a result.

 

[Mendoza]

Was it 14 reds last year?

2 already just 3 games in

Murray still with a clean slate...

 

[vegster]

We are not a nasty, spiteful team like Leeds were a few years ago yet we keep on collecting cards.
We are not clever enough to get away with the odd shove or handball, we always seem to be caught out. We have to stop ALL the silly bookings and try to toughen up mentally and not dive in to tackles or retaliate and get caught.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Apparently the club are fining players for their on-pitch misdemeanors this season. At least they'll be effectively saving a fortune on wages innit.

 

[Stoo82]

Was it 14 reds last year?

2 already just 3 games in

Murray still with a clean slate...

Was it as many as that? Shrek.

 

[sydney]

like i said on the greer thread, i reckon the refs are definitely less likely to give us the benefit,given our disciplinary record over the last two seasons.........needs sorting ASAP.

 

[edna krabappel]

Murray still with a clean slate...

One of the Rochdale defenders was having a bit of a dig at Murray yesterday, I was just waiting for him to turn round and do something back, incurring a booking. Fair play to him that he didn't.

 

[Uwinsc]

Maybe if they lost half their wages if they were suspended they would stop doing stupid things?

 

[astevens76]

What worried me was Gus saying they were practising in training for 10 vs 11, almost as if they are expecting a player to be sent off regularly and so it's no big deal when it happens.

Maybe I'm reading too much into his comments though?

Didn't Arsenal do that a few years back? Maybe even still do?