Roberto Mancini has accused Liverpool of bad sportsmanship yesterday after our 2-2 draw at the Etihad, saying we should have put the ball out of play before we scored our first goal as Edin Dzeko was lying on the floor. It’s impossible to deny Dzeko was fouled by Daniel Agger, but it IS debatable which side the bad sportsmanship came from.
The referee is obliged to stop the game if there is a head injury, which there wasn’t, so although he missed the foul his actions afterwards were correct and he enforced the laws of the game properly. It’s the referee’s job to decide if a player requires immediate treatment, not the oppositions. From this perspective we did nothing wrong, but it has become a given in modern football that if a player is down injured the ball is put out of play, so it wouldn’t have been a surprise if we’d kicked the ball out for a throw in. I wouldn’t really call this bad sportsmanship as we played to the rules of the game, but it is something you’d expect your opponents to do if it was one of your own players down.
BUT, and this is where this incident is different, Dzeko wasn’t hurt. He was fouled, sat up totally unharmed, was about to get up, saw Liverpool on the attack and lay back down again and started rolling around in ‘pain’ in an attempt to make Liverpool put the ball out of play and halt their attack. So where was the bad sportsmanship in this incident? As soon as the goal was scored Dzeko magically recovered enough to chase after the officials and I think the referee can feel justified in his decision that the Bosnian did not require treatment, though he still missed the foul on the City forward.
I don’t really want to criticise Dzeko as he’s certainly not the only player to use this tactic, it happens a lot and it would be unfair of me to single him out, I’m sure our own players have done it on occasion, though no instances spring to mind right away. I think if Mancini wants to complain about a foul not being given he’s well within his rights to do so, the same way we’ve done often enough this season when Suarez has been wiped out in the box. But if Mancini wants to bring up bad sportsmanship he needs to address his own player rather than blaming the opposition. And if his expensively assembled defence doesn’t totally switch off he has nothing to moan about anyway.
personally I didnt think it was a foul ager takes the ball off him and catches him with the back of his foot as dzeko falls to the ground. agger is already in possession. it was also right infront of the linesman and he didn't flag either. hes also an attacker an wouldn't b back defending neway. if city cleared the ball the game would have been stopped and city wouldnt b happy again. Views??
ReplyDeleteYou're right Agger got the ball but the way he went into the challenge meant he was always going to take the man too, and nowadays you're not allowed to do that, remember Spearing's red card at Fulham last season?
ReplyDeleteYou're also spot on it was in front of the linesman, it was his call and he said play on so we were right to carry on. Dzeko wouldn't have got back to help with the defending anyway so if Mancini wants to blame anyone it should be his own defence and midfield for not concentrating.
If City had cleard the ball I expect Dzeko would have got up and chased it which would have angered us and the game could have got quite feisty, but thankfully it fell to sturridge to smash home, I didn't realise he had shots like that in his game and he's looking a bargain at £12million so far, long may it continue!
its just cheating isnt it staying down when ur not hurt. remember Drogba in the CL final. all he did was roll round all game breaking up Barcelonas attacks. I really enjoyed sundays game tho it was end to end stuff at times and yes sturridge is brill. gna enjoy watching him play.hopefully this coutinho can have a similar impact
DeleteI've not seen Coutinho play yet and I'm sure it'll take time for him to settle in but yes, hopefully he can have a similar impact to Sturridge. Things feel like they're looking up at the moment and it's good, bring on West Brom next week!!
DeleteYou're right. Players take advantage or rather, abuse the gamemanship of the game. Players like Didier Drogba comes to mind immediately. When they see the opponent in an attack mode, they stay down even though we can tell these players are hardly injured. Their intention - just to stop the opponent from attacking at all cost. Now this is cheating! Dzeko immediately got up to question the ref when Sturridge scored and he is was reeling on the ground seconds ago - hardly a symptom of someone seriously injured or maybe he has a supernatural body that heals itself in an instant!
ReplyDeleteHe must be the quickest healer in the league now Drogba has moved on.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly a form of cheating but it's hard to complain too much as no team is whiter than white. Had we been given the penalty when Sturridge dived and gone on to win the game I'm sure Liverpool fans (myself included) would have said it's about time we got a break like that and happily celebrated the win.
My solution to players doimg what Dzeko did would be to allow the physio on to the pitch without stopping the game, players wouldn't stay down if they knew the game would carry on.