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[Football] Diving cheats - now Smalling



Weststander

Weststander

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Aug 25, 2011
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Did anyone else see the cringeworthy Smalling dive today?

In the centre circle in un-pressured play, he dived blatantly, with Shelvey no where near him. Laughable in its crapness, but also he was a bloody cheat.

From the resulting freekick, Newcastle scored the winner.
 






JBizzle

JBizzle

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Apr 18, 2010
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Seaford
Sadly, diving is such a massive part of a footballer's make-up now, even a centre-back like Smalling is giving it a go. So many fouls are given these days when a player is already diving when an opposing player makes contact, that it's not surprising that when Shelvey pulls out of the tackle, Smalling is already on his way to the floor. The problem is, despite all the posturing, the FA really don't care enough about it.

As an aside, Jese dived this weekend to "win" Stoke their penalty and the pundits call it "soft". It wasn't soft, he dived. The sooner people start consistently calling out divers as divers, the sooner it will start to go away. Or not.
 




S

scamander

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Aug 9, 2011
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If you took 'soft' , intent' and 'you can see he's just looking at the ball' out of the pundits' repertoire they'd have nothing to say.

I'd change 'dive' to 'seeking contact'. Forwards look to try an initiate contact (or find it) in the area all the time. Started with Vardy running past his man and then hanging a foot out.

When defenders go to clear a ball the opposition players are often making a beeline to the kicking foot of that defender to get there first and find contact. I remember saying a while back that football is becoming WWE as players are increasingly 'selling' contact. Players go down holding their faces automatcially as a result of any upper body contact (a tap of the shoulder).

The pundits and commentators never question this so it's become normalised.
 






Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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scamander said:
If you took 'soft' , intent' and 'you can see he's just looking at the ball' out of the pundits' repertoire they'd have nothing to say.

I'd change 'dive' to 'seeking contact'. Forwards look to try an initiate contact (or find it) in the area all the time. Started with Vardy running past his man and then hanging a foot out.

When defenders go to clear a ball the opposition players are often making a beeline to the kicking foot of that defender to get there first and find contact. I remember saying a while back that football is becoming WWE as players are increasingly 'selling' contact. Players go down holding their faces automatcially as a result of any upper body contact (a tap of the shoulder).

The pundits and commentators never question this so it's become normalised.
Click to expand...

Again, to me it seems very poor form to write all of that and not mention Murray.
We need to own our cheats before pointing the finger at everybody else's cheating players.
 
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S

scamander

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Aug 9, 2011
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Stat Brother said:
Again, to me it seems very poor form to write all of that and not mention Murray.
We need to own our cheats before pointing the finger at everybody else's cheating players.
Click to expand...

Not a Brighton fan, as pointed out above, I find it saddening no matter who does it. Unaware that Murray is a culprit, I've always had Brighton down as a team which doesn't have a history of this.
 




Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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scamander said:
Not a Brighton fan, as pointed out above, I find it saddening no matter who does it. Unaware that Murray is a culprit, I've always had Brighton down as a team which doesn't have a history of this.
Click to expand...

T'is the point, every team has a history of it.
We all say we decry it, but I doubt any one of us refused to celebrate Murray 'earning' the penalty v Burnley.

That incident happened right in front of us, Murray was appealing to the linesman before he hit the turf.
I had just enough time to say to Jnr 'not a penalty, he dived' before cheering as the ref pointed to the spot.
 




T

The Camel

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Nov 1, 2010
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Darlington, UK
Refs are part of the problem too.

Yesterday Sanchez was running at the Newcastle goal at skipped past a player who clearly fouled him, but Sanchez did not go down and managed to get a poor shot on goal.

The ref should have given a penalty but as Sanchez didn't go down he didn't. No one even appealed.

If the refs started giving penalties when players are fouled instead just when they go down, maybe this would curtail diving.
 




T

The Camel

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Nov 1, 2010
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Bozza said:
Red card and 3 (or 5) game ban. Then they’d think twice about it.
Click to expand...

Problem with this is, refs would be more hesitant to penalise for diving if they had to dish out a red card too. A mistake would ruin a game.

Retrospecive ban after studying video evidence, rather than a straight red would be my preferred solution.
 


Napier's Knee

Napier's Knee

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Mar 23, 2014
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The Camel said:
Refs are part of the problem too.

Yesterday Sanchez was running at the Newcastle goal at skipped past a player who clearly fouled him, but Sanchez did not go down and managed to get a poor shot on goal.

The ref should have given a penalty but as Sanchez didn't go down he didn't. No one even appealed.

If the refs started giving penalties when players are fouled instead just when they go down, maybe this would curtail diving.
Click to expand...

just about to make a similar comment. Part - but only a part - of the cause for diving is the inconsistency and often incompetence of PL referees. Jon Moss did not give a blatant penalty against Chelsea. If a players knows they might not get a legitimate penalty, but also know they might get one by diving, they will exploit the situation. Spurs are the masters at this.

The answer comes from better refereeing (I've been amazed to find that Mike Dean is actually one of the better PL refs), and harsher more consistent punishment
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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The Camel said:
Refs are part of the problem too.
Click to expand...
Yep they are.
I doubt we have to get as draconian as Bozza would like.

Of the Albion's 2 incidents on Saturday, had the ref blown for a Stoke free-kick then given the internationally recognized gesture for a dive, everyone would know where they stood (or lie down!)

I'm sure players would think twice the next time, even if their thought process was 'I ain't shite off this fella'.
 


B

Bodian

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May 3, 2012
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scamander said:
If you took 'soft' , intent' and 'you can see he's just looking at the ball' out of the pundits' repertoire they'd have nothing to say.

I'd change 'dive' to 'seeking contact'. Forwards look to try an initiate contact (or find it) in the area all the time. Started with Vardy running past his man and then hanging a foot out.

When defenders go to clear a ball the opposition players are often making a beeline to the kicking foot of that defender to get there first and find contact. I remember saying a while back that football is becoming WWE as players are increasingly 'selling' contact. Players go down holding their faces automatcially as a result of any upper body contact (a tap of the shoulder).

The pundits and commentators never question this so it's become normalised.
Click to expand...

Started long before Vardy. Our own Dean Saunders was pretty good at this....
 




T

The Camel

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Nov 1, 2010
1,520
Darlington, UK
Napier's Knee said:
just about to make a similar comment. Part - but only a part - of the cause for diving is the inconsistency and often incompetence of PL referees. Jon Moss did not give a blatant penalty against Chelsea. If a players knows they might not get a legitimate penalty, but also know they might get one by diving, they will exploit the situation. Spurs are the masters at this.

The answer comes from better refereeing (I've been amazed to find that Mike Dean is actually one of the better PL refs), and harsher more consistent punishment
Click to expand...

It's the inconsistency that drives me wild.

Palace got a penalty against Newcastle when the defender pulled Beneteke's shirt as he was attempting to get his head to a cross. An excellent decision.

But later in the exact same game Shelvey was doing to the same thing, (to an even greater extent!) from a corner.

Nothing given.
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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The Camel said:
It's the inconsistency that drives me wild.
Click to expand...
Again we fans can't duck away from this.

As with this thread, always pointing the finger at other players and never their own, defeats the object of being 'enraged'.

Sure someone like Zahahaha makes it easy to point too, but to do that without calling out your own players as well makes it all very hollow.
Even worse if you demand more from Zaha all the while defending/denying your own teams blatant dives.
 


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