Bale's diving

[guernsey_spurs]

As the OP on this thread, thought i should comment again.

I dont think he is anything like Suarez, and I appreciate that he doesnt do the rolling round, shouting at the ref, waving imaginary cards thing - if he did I really would dislike him.

I just think he goes to ground far too easily and too often. A lot of people defend this by saying he is trying to avoid being clattered, but if that was the case surely he would actually jump out of the way rather than drag his toes along the floor, which actually puts his legs in more danger!

I didnt start the thread to start some kind of witch hunt, I just fin this is the one part of his game that frustrates me and is a bit of a blot on his reputation

 

[Shell]

Is it getting that bad? Or are we just looking at him more closely?

 

[dooey123]

Is it getting that bad? Or are we just looking at him more closely?

I think it has got worse over the last couple years. Bale has been one of our most exciting players for years, even when he was still at left back so he is always noticed when he's on the ball due to the anticipation of what he might do and there is no question that diving has become part of his game now. It seems like he is trying to play the percentages; if you can't get past the defender then win the free kick. I'm just hoping it doesn't get to the stage where refs just assume it was a dive even if it was a legitimate foul like what's happening with Suarez.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

Yeah, I was disappointed with the dive today. Hope AVB gives him a kick up the arse. We are TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, diving is not acceptable!

It also means he comes in for booing from opposition fans putting unnecessary pressure on himself and our team which affects us fans !!

Needs a message from us as well. Difficult for us to boo him but we need to let him know how we feel.

Some kind of chant that comes across positive.

Ideas ?

 

[Y.I.D.O]

My take is that there doesn't have to be contact for it to be a foul, but Bale is going down too easily.

The thing that I think make diving cheating is the part of trying to con the ref and not every dive is trying to do that. Bale at the weekend was not diving to con the ref, hence no appeal for a foul. Suarez always and I mean always has his hand in the air appealing straight away regardless of contact, shouting at the ref making out he was fouled and generally acting in disbelief if his dive is not given. For me this is cheating, not the dive itself.

 

[Riandor]

This is down to teaching.

He has been taught how to avoid contact, because let's face it, people are trying to kick 7 lumps out of him because they are scared.
Bale is trying to protect himself and his career.

That being said, he goes down too easily and he has on occasion dived. The avoiding the keeper is highlighted because he has made a rod for his own back with the times he has sought free kicks or penalties for the softest of touches.

i don't want Bale's career ended by a rash challenge, but this is a contact sport and if you are going to "jump" out of the way and look like a sissy :giggle: then that's one thing and I can even condone that for the benefit of prolonging a career, but Bale needs to find a different solution or he will be branded a diver. Maybe he could start with being honest, if there was no contact and he goes down out of fear of being clattered then own up and ask the ref to overturn a free kick.

he will get branded because it is as seen as cheating and that is what needs to be changed, honesty is the best answer here.

 

[Bulletspur]

I think people have got it wrong on this occasion.

He is expecting to be clattered by Guzan who is gonna go through him to get the ball. Anticipating the contact he has dived to try and limit the impact. You have to remember that these guys are human, they hurt and get injured - nobody wants to get hurt or be injured, especially someone with a injury record like Bale and whats happened in the past with Charlie Adam.

What happened was Guzan pulled out and Bale already had dived and ended up looking silly. Now I am not naive enough to think Bale is a saint and he is always just trying to cover himself from getting injured, but I do think the vast vast majority of the time (9/10 times) he is trying to avoid the contact.

You only have to look at Ronaldo who dived when in the Premier League but doesn't do it to the same extent in Spain.

Diving is wrong but you only have to look at whats happened to Aaron Ramsey's career since his injury, Bale is regarding as one of world's best wingers - he is one injury away from becoming Kieron Dyer. Bale is not a cheat.

Disagree. After watching the video, if Bale had continued running he would have avoided him altogether therefore eluding any tackle. Going down as you say, to avoid a tackle he had put himself at more risk IMO. So I yes, he dived, something which I know most Spurs fan will not condone.

 

[Shanks]

Just shameful. Bale is good enough not to dive.

I imagine (and I could be wrong), that Liverpool fans are defending Saurez dive, so it's refreshing to see us not defending (most of us anyway), Bales rather pathetic attempt of a dive.

 

[invictaspur]

It also means he comes in for booing from opposition fans putting unnecessary pressure on himself and our team which affects us fans !!

Needs a message from us as well. Difficult for us to boo him but we need to let him know how we feel.

Some kind of chant that comes across positive.

Ideas ?

"He stays on his feet, he stays on his feee-ee-eet, Gareth Bale, he stays on his feet...."

???

 

[parklane1]

Disagree. After watching the video, if Bale had continued running he would have avoided him altogether therefore eluding any tackle. Going down as you say, to avoid a tackle he had put himself at more risk IMO. So I yes, he dived, something which I know most Spurs fan will not condone.

Totally agree, this is why i am convinced he dived. There was no reason for him to throw himself to the floor he was past him before he started to go down.

 

[LeSoupeKitchen]

I think I'll sit on the fence for this one. I think he is a pussy trying to avoid injury but is generally happy to take the advantage if the ref gives a free kick. Would have been really interesting to see his reaction if Guzan had been sent off.

 

[ultimateloner]

I think its a blatant dive. The defender was miles away from clattering into him and as people said above, he could have avoided injury another way.
Whether he should dive is another question. I'm pro-diving. Its an advantage reserved for the speedy dribbler and encourages more direct running in the final 3rd. It's good for the fun of the game. The problem isn't diving players (who doesn't want an advantage?) it's the refs who fail to spot a dive.

 

[Flashspur]

i dont think he dives but he goes down easily however there is usually contact when this happens.....give him a break, he has players trying to kick lumps out of him most of the time

 

[kcmei]

I think he expected the contact and just trying to protect himself. You have to have both feet leaving the ground before there is actually contact to avoid serious injury

 

[sam1972]

I couldn't care less. Who on here hasn't done something 'wrong' at work to give themself an advantage?
Everyone does it in all walks of life.
It doesn't make it right but some of the holier than thou posts have pissed me off.
Night all

 

[We'llWinThePrem]

Fuck sake Gareth

 

[talkshowhost86]

I couldn't care less. Who on here hasn't done something 'wrong' at work to give themself an advantage?
Everyone does it in all walks of life.
It doesn't make it right but some of the holier than thou posts have pissed me off.
Night all

That's fine if you genuinely believe that, but I'm prepared to bet that you've had a pop at players cheating from other teams in the past so that's somewhat hypocritical.

 

[King of Otters]

He didn't dive in the Wales game.

Getting slated on Twitter by all kinds of bandwagon jumping ****'s. Let's not join them.

 

[talkshowhost86]

Fuck sake Gareth

Don't actually think the one tonight was a dive, certainly not as much as the one against Villa. I don't think he deliberately tripped himself today but once he had he made the most of it certainly.

 

[Shanks]

And lets be honest, when he scored the pile driver, Adams looked to be going in with the elbow pretty feircly.