'English football is not more pure' – Pochettino backs Alli after dive

[mawspurs]

The Tottenham manager says the Premier League is no different to the rest of the world game when it comes to players diving

Read the full article at Goal

 

[whitesocks]

I think they should bring back the indirect free-kick.
Alli was going away from goal - foul or not, a penalty award is very harsh.
Same with all this holding in the box - much of it isn't serious enough to give a penalty, but maybe if there was a softer punishment, refs would be more likely to act.
I'll add that rather than the indirect free kick taken inside the box, which often used to result in chaos and not much of a scoring opportunity, it should be taken from the nearest point outside the box.

 

[guiltyparty]

He's right, of course. Steven Gerrard was one of the biggest divers in the Premier League. Rooney has dived plenty, and Jamie Vardy dived or 'instigated contact' on at least half of his penalties last year, and ended up getting sent off for one where the ref saw through it.

I don't necessarily condone it but Alli's one has been blown out of all proportion. And bare LOLs at him dogging Owen off.

 

[dickieven]

It is part of the game but I still don't like it. Alli is one of the worst (or is it best!) at this and I hope he takes this out of his game. Don't get me wrong I am happy with a penalty and goingbdown when contaft but he needs to be better than that and this season he seems more interested in going to ground to win a free kick than actually scoring.

 

[Danners9]

Fair play, for me, works when everything is fair. All the players, managers and the referees. As it's not, and sometimes obviously so, players need to make the ref's minds up for them.

Rojo not sent off. Bournemouth's first penalty claim. Luiz body checking Aguero and nothing given. The high kick on Walker. None of these things given. Is that fair? competent officials would give these.

Then there are things like Fabregas slapping Fernandinho and edging back to ensure he goes over the boards. Red card for Fernandinho, nothing for Fabregas.

That's just from this weekend. Earlier this season, Arsenal beat Burnley with an offside/handball goal. Given. Er, why!? if Burnley were able to go up the other end and exaggerate a foul to win a pen and equalise, is that justified?

It's become a game of 'if you want it, make it happen' - be it to wind up an opponent so they lose their head and make a mistake/get sent off, or create a foul to win a penalty.

Narrow margins and you cannot, sadly, rely on the referees to get the major decisions right so that the team who deserves to win actually does. There are three teams now, including the officials, and one team must beat two to win the game.

If they were consistent in their decisions and able to spot dives, then great. No diving. They aren't able to distinguish slips, falls, 'avoiding a foul', genuine fouls and dives.. so I can see why players try it. If they are going to make mistakes, at least they can be in your favour. Sad it's like that, though...

 

[Japhet]

Retrospective punishment for divers (or any number of other infringements) would probably change a few mindsets. Rojo should get a ban for a shocking tackle and Alli should get shown up for what is nothing short of cheating. It's all very well saying players need to show the Ref there has been contact, but if the contact is very light and there is no intent, it shouldn't be a foul. Not enough divers are punished IMO and it's as bad an infringement as preventing a goal (or scoring opportunity) by foul play.

 

[ernie78]

The focus on this by the media seems a bit OTT to be honest. I don't recall commentators declaring that dives "reflected very badly" on Gerrard or Rooney, quite the opposite in fact. I'm not excusing Dele, I'd rather this not be a part of his or our game but I'd love the media to be consistent with this.

 

[Jenko]

The focus on this by the media seems a bit OTT to be honest. I don't recall commentators declaring that dives "reflected very badly" on Gerrard or Rooney, quite the opposite in fact. I'm not excusing Dele, I'd rather this not be a part of his or our game but I'd love the media to be consistent with this.

It's only because he's an up and coming England star. once he's established as a senior star he'll get away with it. or maybe he has to be in a sky 4 team for that privilege, i dunno, but the media like to have an agenda with english players. probably why the england team does so badly.

If it was a foreign nobody it would not have got any attention at all. i didn't think it was half as bad as most of the dives we see tbh.

 

[JC-Rule]

There are three teams now, including the officials, and one team must beat two to win the game.

If they were consistent in their decisions and able to spot dives, then great. No diving. They aren't able to distinguish slips, falls, 'avoiding a foul', genuine fouls and dives.. so I can see why players try it. If they are going to make mistakes, at least they can be in your favour. Sad it's like that, though...

Real talk

 

[ernie78]

or maybe he has to be in a sky 4 team for that privilege.

Think you've hit the nail on the head

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

He didn't dive. That was a mean foul.

 

[Sweetsman]

Well said, Poch. Hypocrisy is an Olympic Sport in England. Vardy was a serial offender. That said, in the Champions League we had a definite penalty denied when Alli was tripped, so I guess that his reputation already precedes him.

 

[Bilko]

It's a big theme in Germany at the moment - another kid falling over coz he's taught to do it

 

[Spurs 1961]

I really don't like diving or any sort of play acting. I can though understand why people do it. With the amount of times forwards are grabbed and held back or otherwise fouled in the penalty area without being given anything it is tempting to see the dive as an opportunity to redress the balance. At the end of the day what is just a game to us is the livelihood of the players.

Still don't like diving though whoever does it

 

[1882andallthat]

Retrospective punishment for divers (or any number of other infringements) would probably change a few mindsets. Rojo should get a ban for a shocking tackle and Alli should get shown up for what is nothing short of cheating. It's all very well saying players need to show the Ref there has been contact, but if the contact is very light and there is no intent, it shouldn't be a foul. Not enough divers are punished IMO and it's as bad an infringement as preventing a goal (or scoring opportunity) by foul play.

I completely agree with this, I don't care what team is involved even ours, diving to win penalties or dangerous free kicks or to gain any advantage is a despicable element of the game, unfortunately it's embedded in the game worldwide and Poch is right to say English players are not immune to it, and on the subject of cheating and gamesmanship, it's high time they threw the book at Chelsea, they resorted to similar tactics against City as they did against us last season and the only message they are receiving is that it works and you prosper from it.

Yes it was completely wrong for Augero to do what he did, but I truly believe that provocation is like a stench at the core of some of that team, and one of the chief culprits Fabregas is one of those at the centre of it. I know it won't happen but monetary punishment will be like water off a ducks back for Chelsea, if points were deducted then they may think twice about it.

 

[Japhet]

I completely agree with this, I don't care what team is involved even ours, diving to win penalties or dangerous free kicks or to gain any advantage is a despicable element of the game, unfortunately it's embedded in the game worldwide and Poch is right to say English players are not immune to it, and on the subject of cheating and gamesmanship, it's high time they threw the book at Chelsea, they resorted to similar tactics against City as they did against us last season and the only message they are receiving is that it works and you prosper from it.

Yes it was completely wrong for Augero to do what he did, but I truly believe that provocation is like a stench at the core of some of that team, and one of the chief culprits Fabregas is one of those at the centre of it. I know it won't happen but monetary punishment will be like water off a ducks back for Chelsea, if points were deducted then they may think twice about it.

Couldn't agree more. To anyone who cuts our own players extra slack I'd say 'If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem'. Of course, it's much more complicated than that though. Football is infected to the core with greed, cheating, dishonesty and entitlement. All I can do is not buy into it.

 

[Gassin's finest]

I dislike diving, cheating or any other gamesmanship in football, and I don't agree with Pochettino... Fucking practising diving in training the dirty cheating argies.

 

[Kiedis]

Gotta say, I always thought it was baffling how Gerrard never seemed to get stick for his antics. Was it ever a mentioned among british commentators or the MOTD panel? Genuinely asking, I'm not from England, so I didn't get to watch those programmes back in the day.

Allis penalty incident was vintage Gerrard, going flat in midair and somewhat touching his opponent on the way down.

 

[Shirtfront]

The league has to clamp down on the stuff that really is bad. Dishonesty and violence are generally seen as the worst types of crimes. They should be stamped out. That means video analysis after the game. You simply cannot expect a referee to see it all.

Excellent points made above about all of the incidents on the weekend. I would have a video review of any of the melee incidents at Chelsea v City (how Fabregas conned the ref there was a disgrace). And Dele should cop a week ban for his dive.

Before anyone says: "where would it stop?!?!?", the answer is it would stop at the point at which the League decided the type of behaviour needs to be stamped out. For me, that is any kind of violence and any kind of simulation/diving. I wouldn't go as far as reviewing fouls that were not violent and not looking to fool the ref (eg holding in the box etc). Sure, they are not good but they are not the blight on the game that career threatening tackles are or diving/faking injury. I would also chuck in time wasting!

But the real point is that the League needs to decide what it wants stopped, and then have a post game review with sanctions to stamp it out. This nonsense about the Ref being in the best place to decide and the sanctity o their decision is ridiculous.

 

[Shadydan]

People go way OTT on diving, we've already done the retrospective bans thing with the Eduardo case and that didn't turn out very well. I think a yellow card and the negative media focus is enough to eventually stop players from diving around personally.

I'd rather they clamp down on 'tackles' such as Rojo's at the weekend first of all, potential career-enders, that should be getting more focus than Alli's dive.