Good afternoon.
The boy Bale is undoubtedly going through what you might call a rebirth. No longer content with being what he obviously believes to be an admittedly lightening fast one trick pony who owns the left wing, his transition into a more central, Ronaldoesque figure is almost complete.
All we are waiting for is for the fine tuning if you like. The balance between him being an as effective team player and a regular goalscorer. The signs after only 7 games in are generally encouraging.
But then there’s the diving.
There are a number of issues here. The first is that he never used to dive. I never had the privilege of watching Didier Drogba prior to his shift at Second Hand Fridge so for the entirety of the time I watched him play in the Premier League he was a rotten, cheating diver.
The next is that cheats don’t prosper. That may make me sound like some Victorian school teacher but hear me out. When footballers hang up their boots and all they are left with is some money in the bank, some memories and their reputation.
Jimmy Greaves: Prolific barely describes his goalscoring. Reputation? Can be a bit prickly. Gary Lineker: Top notch player. Reputation? Housewife’s choice. Sol Campbell: One of the finest centre backs of the last 20 years. Reputation? Lots of people wouldn’t save him if he was drowning.
Gareth Bale needs to seriously sit down with someone he listens to and watch tapes of him simulating and decide …to stop it. And I think I know what Bale might say if you could get him to speak candidly about the subject.
While there are players like Charlie Adam in circulation and you have referees who fail to see every unlawful attack then it’s only right that you [the victim] do what you can to protect yourself from and try to stamp out these unfair and potentially dangerous challenges.
But this is naive. The reality is that until effective technology comes in the referee will miss things. The game is so fast and athletic now that in the thick of it the odd kick or worse will literally be quicker than the human eye.
Diving isn’t the answer. Is it? For every free kick he dubiously wins a small piece of his credibility is chipped away. Or am I missing something?
Luis Suarez this weekend plumbed new depths to the extent that he actually made a laughing stock of himself. The ‘cry wolf routine’ is so exhausted with Suarez now that an opponent could whip out a baseball bat, thump him over the head with it and most referees would jog past the concussed Uruguayan, waving ‘get up’.
Bale must stop diving.
The offside trap years ago was used by only crap teams to stop good teams.Now it is a legitimate tactic. I still have a disdain for it but its part of the modern game. Its using a rule that was meant to stop goal hanging and now it makes the fields smaller. Its not pure to me.
The Double team would rarely use it and prefer to MARK players.
I see so many goals scored because a quick attacker beats the trap.For me much better to watch good defence rather than this tactic.
Its only relevant for me as I see it as a type of cheating.Playing to the rule but using it for an advantage that it wasnt meant for
50 years ago the offside rule was totally different-In fact week in week out I had always thought the linesmen get it so wrong almost every game.
Keeper has ball in hand-lumps it up-Defence step up when the ball is about the centre, and then appeal, arms aloft-ref then gives it-Surely it’s when the balls kicked-not active when it’s in your half-anyway getting tired about comparisons to bygone years and yesterdays players when there are no comparisons to be made. Different game, different speed, different ball, different rules, different circumstances, different pitches, different expectations and different supporters-reminisce by all means-but to make direct comparisons is neither relevant nor fair.
The rule is still in effect?
It was put in for a certain reason.
The reason is still valid otherwise they could take it out.
But today its used as a tactic.
My mentioning anything nostalgic has nothing to do with you,They are relevant statements not comparisons.
If you dont like them no need to read them
Hard not to Ronnie-well,the less protracted ones anyway-
‘crap teams’ like Liverpool and Arsenal-you mean winning teams I think-It’s stupid players who get caught out-not intelligent ones-If it’s a tactic-then surely there’s an antidote?
‘crap teams’ like Liverpool and Arsenal-you mean winning teams I think-It’s stupid players who get caught out-not intelligent ones-If it’s a tactic-then surely there’s an antidote?
No Im talking early sixties and it was just the crap teams that played it
If you are looking for a fight then maybe it bothers you but I never write as if it was better before (except relatively speaking)
Really its not comparable and the offside is not something that people that watched years ago think that much about that much.Its just a pet peeve for me and a game spoiler and I chuckle every time a forward sneaks through a trap to score.Because in the offside trap there are tons of openings for the right kind of run and good players exploit it.
I like solid defence and you cannot defend well if you are standing on the players shoulder and not behind him
I’m talking seventies and it was used by any team worth talking about-boring if you weren’t winning but effective if you were, also noticeable that since the back-pass law was introduced Liverpool haven’t won the league? Like I said if there’s a will there’s a way, you only have to have someone at the helm to out think the problem don’t you?
I agree with that.
For sure where theres a will theres a way,I just prefer strong defending based on marking,positioning and tackling and not on looking at the linesmans flag and holding your hands up.
You need a whole bunch of people on your side to be syncronised (its an art too) and some neutrals to decide the fate of your defence when you use that tactic.
THIS OFFSIDE PART OF THE BLOG HAS BEEN PAID FOR BY GARETH BALE,HIS FAMILY AND SPONSORS.
IT HAS BEEN USED SPECIFICALLY AS A DECOY TO DEFLECT OPINION AWAY FROM THE DIVING ACCUSATIONS.
The real Monty then?
Please could you twitter this history of offside to Defoe so he can work out a strategy to overcome this modern day scourge.
Although if you watch him he never even seems to look around to see if he is offside or not.
I dont use twitter would a two way Ham radio do?
Harry are you called Bale ‘The Plank” ???
‘calling’
I have to echo Swido’s comment. There is simulation on both sides here. The keeper fakes a foul and Bale falls without any contact. It’s as if he is expecting to be fouled.
I think the system of red and yellow cards needs reviewing.
In general I think we need a tougher policy on the cheats like Suarez who make a living trying to change the outcome of matches by cheating. A dive in the box should be an automatic red card.Serial offenders should be banned for entire seasons.
But why is stopping a goal by a deliberate handball an automatic red, while a “Hand of God” , if spotted, would be a yellow?
And an automatic yellow for removing your shirt simply trivializes the card.
Players should be fined cash for stupid breaches of etiquette. Cards should be used for people who try to gain advantage by breaking rules.
Why taking off a shirt is an automatic yellow is beyond me? It offends on-one, hurts no-one and is a celebration of scoring a goal, the whole point of the game.I understand the ‘messages’ on tee-shirts-that’s fair enough, but how can it be as bad as an over the top tackle? Priorities FIFA?
Sponsors. When the shirt comes off, the sponsors don’t get their money shot.
If that’s the real reason-then it say’s everything about FIFA doesn’t it?
Why on earth would you ‘fake a foul’ in this situation, if you’re the keeper? Are you seriously trying to argue that the keeper set out to try and buy a dive out of Bale and maybe he gets a yellow, knowing full well this cunning ploy could backfire and result in a straight red for him?
Really – have you thought this through? :ermm:
I have to agree LLL! The keeper goes for a toe-punt tommy, realises he won’t get there and pulls out at the last minute.
It really is as simple as that!
Diving in the manner Bale did is no guarantee he won’t get a whack on the shin or ankle from the defender’s boot. A far better way is to do what George Best used to do so elegantly, simply jump over the defender’s feet.
With all due respect, George Best ran about 50mph slower than Bale and the cloggers he was up against telegraphed their scythes so badly, he could have stepped over them while holding a cup of tea and without spilling a drop in the saucer.
What has running speed have to do with it? It’s very possible to jump when running at top speed. Hurdlers, long jumpers. In fact it’s less likely to do self damage by jumping than throwing yourself on the ground at top speed. Your argument is invalid.
Bale dived and not for the first time. It’s disgusting and has no place at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club….sort it out monkey boy or f*ck off!
Is this from the same drawer of irony as AVB out, Crisis at WHL and Defoe is the greatest passer in English football?
Not at all, If there’s one thing I cannot stand it’s diving, it gets right up my nose and causes me to despise the perpetrator to the point where I use ‘below the belt tactics’ to make my point….
and thats what Bale did to all those bastards that have unfairly cut him down before he resorted to this stuff.He is now not getting injured anywhere near as much
You’re not the bloke that sits on the lower shelf side are you, just at pitch level about 10 seats from the support pillar toward the corner flag?
(See post below)
Not guilty, but if any of our players dived or cheated within earshot I would express my views……I support Tottenham Hotspur because historically we have always played the game the right way……
Fair enough. I just hate the way that insult gets thrown at Bale all the time. That kind of has the same effect on me that diving has on you.