Gareth Bale

[tony_parkes]

I can't believe a player of his standard shits himself so much when it looks like he might have to use his right foot. It's criminal.

Owen
Shearer
Beckham

To name but 3 who were so one footed it was cringe worthy. When any of the above were in a position to use their left foot they often ran around the ball and tried to flick or toe poke it with their right foot instead.

I can't understand it, I was merely a good junior football player but my wrong foot, the left, was not that far behind my right. I used to practice shooting, crossing and passing with my left foot and got to the standard where I considered myself nearly 2 footed and used to play on the left or right without constantly checking back in to use my favoured foot.

 

[Mattspur]

It's been embarrassing for a while. He won't stop it until he gets a card every time he does it and somebody (ie the manager) tells him to. In the meantime, we'll have to put up with refs not giving us free kicks when they should because they think we're divers.

The fact that we have a cheat in the team will hurt us.

No way was it a dive today. At first i thought it was, as the keeper didn't touch him, but after watching again i saw that Gibbs very clearly clips his foot after he had taken it past he keeper. 100% a penalty and 100% denying a clear goal scoring oppertunity. He should have been sent off. Only the ref knows why he decided not to follow the rules. Maybe he thought it was the keeper who brought him down :shrug: who knows.

 

[LSUY]

I think there was a 'touch' of contact but not enough to affect momentum and go down.

I was more concerned with some of the cocky, Ronaldo-esque techniques he was trying to pull off.

This.

The ball was crossed to him when he was on the edge of the Arsenal box and instead of controlling it normally he attempted some stupid little flick that resulted in knocking the ball away from him & allowing the left back to get back into position.

He needs to get back to being the left winger that destroyed Maicon with pace instead of attempting to be the next Ronaldo/Messi.

 

[StartingPrice]

This.

The ball was crossed to him when he was on the edge of the Arsenal box and instead of controlling it normally he attempted some stupid little flick that resulted in the ball running away from him & allowing the left back to get back into position.

He needs to get back to being the left winger that destroyed Maicon with pace instead of attempting to be the next Ronaldo/Messi.

He is an immensely skilful player, and will get more so - I wouldn't necessarily criticise him to the point where it is eraadicated from his game. But he has to learn that that is the cream, he still has to produce a full pint of milk before topping it off.

 

[The Apprentice]

Bale should be playing left wing getting chalk on his boots.

 

[Mr Pink]

Who the hell was Bale marking when Friedel made that great save from Rosicky's header....he was just standing there picking up no one...he wasn't even ball watching FFS...

He's brillant but he does really annoy me sometimes...in fact it sums up our whole attitude sometimes...

 

[StartingPrice]

Who the hell was Bale marking when Friedel made that great save from Rosicky's header....he was just standing there picking up no one...he wasn't even ball watching FFS...

He's brillant but he does really annoy me sometimes...in fact it sums up our whole attitude sometimes...

Like I said, and I know I haven't waded through the whole match thread, but I haven't seen anyone else mention it; for the Sagna header (I mean, the guy's not even tall), Bale just kinda lifted his foot up towards the ball, when the obvious thing was to attack it aggressively with his head. Would have either won the head, or, at the least, prevented Sagna from getting a clean header. Case of barnet-preservation methinks :-|

 

[spud]

I wasn't answering your post.
And I was specifically referring to last season, and, specifically, what little he had of a second half of last season, seeing as Adam assaulted him without even getting a yellow card (and that was one of the most shocking and patently deliberate challenges I have seen in a long time). He was being kicked all over the place.

Truth is, he does seem to have developed a bit of a get out of the way mentality, in reaction to that. But he still gets clattered a-plenty, and often without the refs taking any action, and for the pen, the Goons defenders were nibbling at his ankles all the way, and it was inconclusive if Szelny touched him. I agree, it was a soft pen - not convinced that, based on a couple of iffy falls our own fans should be holding this witch-hunt. TBH, I think it is just some disappointment-related shi'ite.

You are right in that he gets kicked, and you are right in that he doesn't get some free kicks that he should. This might be because refs have seen him diving and don't want to be conned.

This so-called 'get out of the way mentality' has been with him for a while. Look at the CL games last year when he was 'hacked down' in full flight (specifically the home game against Inter). You will see that he was falling into the challenge before any contact was made; if he had kept running, there might have been no contact.

He's a diver and he always has been. The only reason why some on this board (and others) defend him is because he is our player. If he was a goon we would all know that he's a cheat and be calling him one. The only difference between Bale's diving and C. Ronaldo's is that - until recently - Bale was better at concealing it.

Szchesny didn't touch him today. There was no contact. There would be no reason for Bale to take evasive action to avoid injury, as any collision would simply have resulted in a trip. Does that mean that Bale dived, or do you think that there is some other reason for his hitting the deck?

It is quite right that we should defend our player if he is falsely accused of something. But we should not condone our player cheating, either by denying that he does it or excusing it on the basis that 'it's part of the game' or 'everybody else does it so why shouldn't we'. We should be better than that. If we accept cheating by Bale - or any other of our players - it makes us no better than the mickeys defending Suarez.

 

[spud]

No way was it a dive today. At first i thought it was, as the keeper didn't touch him, but after watching again i saw that Gibbs very clearly clips his foot after he had taken it past he keeper. 100% a penalty and 100% denying a clear goal scoring oppertunity. He should have been sent off. Only the ref knows why he decided not to follow the rules. Maybe he thought it was the keeper who brought him down :shrug: who knows.

100% self-delusion.

 

[THFC_67]

It doesn't matter if he gets clattered during games the diving needs to stop. All that will happen is that refs will give him even less protection because of it. Not passing to Saha which would have put him clean through and a great chance for the third goal was dreadful. He is a fantastic player but Harry needs to have a strong word with him. Somebody else started a similar thread on this last week and he got slated, maybe he wasn't as wrong as people made out.

 

[Mattspur]

100% self-delusion.

100% should have gone to spec savers.

You obviously missed it, but like many in this thread are saying, Gibbs fouled him.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Lets get rid of the uselless cheat and bring back the honest Johhny Jackson.:roll:

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

[yt]16FdJrrAWSo[/yt]

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

Reason?

Stronger, faster, great left foot. He should definitely be staying on the wing more. I'm fine with him drifting now and then it means he will pop up in a position but he needs to be a regular outlet for us from wide.

For the record, certainly looked like a small clip from Gibbs to me on the replay but he was looking for it.

 

[Spursbabe63]

I'm far more Concerned about how fucking lazy and greedy he is

I totally agree with this! He's really beginning to frustrate the hell out of me, when he want's to shoot from difficult positions, instead of passing to player's in better one's! Yesterday he did exactly that, shooting when he could have passed to Saha and we might've been 3-0 up and possibly the game won, instead of losing 5-2!!

 

[lol]

its more of his decision making than his one footed-ness. remember theres was one possession he brought the ball slowly into their penalty box in the second half, but was force to his right. in the end he lost possession because he want to keep the ball with his left. he should have either blast the ball at someone's leg with his right, or just flick a back pass to walker. he needs more maturity in reading games. his physicality can only bring him this far. to become better he needs more

 

[bubble07]

GIBBS made contact with Bales knee. When running at ridiculous speed a slight touch and you lose stride and fall. Reason ref didnt show card is because he didnt know who fouled him but knew he was clipped

 

[bubble07]

Only issue I had with Bale was when we were 2 up. People are saying he should have passed to Saha I thinking he should have taken the pass from Ekotto in his stride instead of taking a touch and then turning. Lost serious momentum. There was no way Vermaelen would have got near Bale if he took the ball in his stride. 0-3 and its game over

 

[Gilzeanking]

Was discussing Bale here last week . To be effective the best wingers are tricky . This means sudden changes of direction , feints ,unpredictability .
This doesn't really describe Bale .

I agreed with a poster that Bales game is about power surges rather than the above . This means that he can be effectively marked out of a game by an intelligent defender if he stays on the wing. Yes he did well against Maicon...but there was the element of surprise involved ...and it was indeed , power surges that did the damage .

Even with Ade , we don't seem overloaded with scoring forwards and Bale has scored a fair few coming inside .

The big problem for me is his big headedness where pressing/tackling are something for lesser players to do and as an out and out forward he is also often in no position to defend our full backs when we lose the ball .

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

Bale needs to wise up this free role he has is a load of balls in a 4 4 2