Football 2011-2012

[The Nal]

Wooderson mentions 'sledging' above, and I'm sure it goes on in football just as it does cricket.

A great way of winding up many people would be with comments about their mother. And while I'm in no way trying to justify it as right, a similar effect could be achieved to some with racial comments.

Edited October 17, 2011 by The Nal

[Wooderson]

Maybe nothing but unless its unproven 100% then there'll always be a doubt. Which is why Evra has so much responsibility now to conclude the matter

I dont like Suarez but nobody deserves that labelled at them if its unfounded.

[Wooderson]

wrong evra accused the chelsea staf off using abuse about his race, he also accused steve finnan a few years back aswel. if suarez is innocent then evra should get a big ban.

[the_hedge]

Dont know how other Liverpool fans feel but I have issues with Suarez wearing the shirt and this was before the United game. All players will cheat to some extent but Suarez is just taking the piss with it and he's not a player I particulary admire even considering his ability.

[pink_triangle]

Whatever happens I don't think Suarez comes out of it clean. Without evidence LFC have had to support a player who would have been sacked immediately were it proven he abused Evra. However, also without evidence he will be unable to fully clear his name.

Edited October 17, 2011 by pink_triangle

[eFestivals]

Dont know how other Liverpool fans feel but I have issues with Suarez wearing the shirt and this was before the United game. All players will cheat to some extent but Suarez is just taking the piss with it and he's not a player I particulary admire even considering his ability.

oh c'mon .... I've not seen any evidence of him cheating to any6 greater extent than Skippy, Nani or Drogba have during their time in England, and I'd say it's probably less.

(before anyone starts, those players were picked only because they're the most recent high-profile examples of similar).

[Wooderson]

Dont know how other Liverpool fans feel but I have issues with Suarez wearing the shirt and this was before the United game. All players will cheat to some extent but Suarez is just taking the piss with it and he's not a player I particulary admire even considering his ability.

[The Nal]

oh c'mon .... I've not seen any evidence of him cheating to any6 greater extent than Skippy, Nani or Drogba have during their time in England, and I'd say it's probably less.

(before anyone starts, those players were picked only because they're the most recent high-profile examples of similar).

Edited October 17, 2011 by The Nal

[Wooderson]

Im not sure it will hurt suarez as much as you think, when it comes to claims where its one mans word against another, the public will make a judgement on the percieved integrity of the person making a claim. For example when moyes took legal action against rooney without knowing any facts everyones natural assumption was moyes was telling the truth. I dont think people like evra enough to believe what he says.

Also Im not sure if liverpool would sack suarez if found guilty of racial abuse, that would be the honourable thing to do but its a huge call to take a hit on a player of that vlaue.

[the_hedge]

You could say the exact same thing about Evra.

[the_hedge]

oh c'mon .... I've not seen any evidence of him cheating to any6 greater extent than Skippy, Nani or Drogba have during their time in England, and I'd say it's probably less.

(before anyone starts, those players were picked only because they're the most recent high-profile examples of similar).

[The Nal]

Broader question though. In the absence of a means of proving this one way or another what does a player who has been racially abused do?

[Wooderson]

Evra doesn't play for Liverpoool so it doesn't concern me. It concerns me that Liverpool have signed the type

of player that I despise. I''m not saying that Liverpool have the perfect history and have only signed honest hard working players but it just feels wrong to me, it doesn't fit in with what I think Liverppool stand for as a club.

[Wooderson]

Interesting yeah. I don't think you can walk off the pitch to be honest. He told Ferguson after the match and him and Ferguson went into the refs room and reported it.

What else can they do?

[The Nal]

Stewie Downing had one of the biggest pratfalls Ive seen in years at the weekend

[the_hedge]

In terms of this issue of racist abuse, nothing has been proven and the player is not guilty of anything in my eyes.

In terms of Suarez' diving antics I do hope they improve in line with the accepted standards of the PL. Stewie Downing had one of the biggest pratfalls Ive seen in years at the weekend and his temperament wouldve been beyond reproach prior to his arrival. Horses for courses chief - all players dive... some are much better at it that others though.

[eFestivals]

Suarez is pretty bad though. Although not as bad as he was at Ajax by all accounts. He has a standard dive though and he did it on Saturday again. Two legs up in the air, land in the foetal position, rock from side to side with the right hand up in the air calling for the stretcher.

yep - no different to Nani who gets the side of foot trodden on, and then goes down holding his shin.

What I've not seen Suarez do is go down with no touch. Ferdinand can protest on the pitch all he likes, but he's clearly a liar about such things.

Talking of which, Downing on Saturday. ..... and Evra was clearly in a fair mood for that match, waving his imaginary yellow card (it's starting to look like Utd have issued the team with those ).

Given that Evra had stepped out onto the pitch wanting it all his own way but had Suarez running rings around him, might it be the case that he was looking for an excuse for his own poor performance? Stranger things have happened.

[Wooderson]

I had this opinion of him before the United game. I can't really commment on the racial abuse until something has been proved. His cheating though and attitude to other team members is questionable. I hope he changes my view of him, as for now I see him as an out and out cheat!

[eFestivals]

I had this opinion of him before the United game. I can't really commment on the racial abuse until something has been proved. His cheating though and attitude to other team members is questionable. I hope he changes my view of him, as for now I see him as an out and out cheat!

Cheat? Without a doubt. I'll never get past him at the WC last summer.

That aside, him and Evra were clearly having a niggle at each other at the weekend, but it didn't appear to be malicious or bad tempered from Suarez. I took that hand onto Evra's head as consolatory as they walked away from the ref, tho I get why Evra might not have taken it that way.

[ralph250]

oh c'mon .... I've not seen any evidence of him cheating to any6 greater extent than Skippy, Nani or Drogba have during their time in England, and I'd say it's probably less.

(before anyone starts, those players were picked only because they're the most recent high-profile examples of similar).

[eFestivals]

hey, at least this diverts things from a hugely dodgy Utd performance, and City looking down on them from top of the league.

Now there's a thought, eh? It follows on nicely from the dig at City by fergie from labelling the Liverpool the biggest club match in the world, especially as that match is next weekend and fergie kept his best team back for unimportant match.

[eFestivals]

I thought you had quite strong feelings about:

I do, make no mistake about it - as you were posting this, I was posting "Cheat? Without a doubt. I'll never get past him at the WC last summer."

That aside, the main reason for my comments at the time of that was more about how the punishment was lesser than the crime of the actual cheating - Suarez didn't do anything on the pitch which most other players wouldn't have also done in the same position (tho his celebration at the missed penalty was in very poor taste).

(I'm amused with that picture you've now found - at the time of the discussion about that, I was the only one saying that Suarez had moved towards the ball to stop it while others said it'd come straight at him; that picture proves it beyond all doubt).

[The Nal]

I do, make no mistake about it - as you were posting this, I was posting "Cheat? Without a doubt. I'll never get past him at the WC last summer."

That aside, the main reason for my comments at the time of that was more about how the punishment was lesser than the crime of the actual cheating - Suarez didn't do anything on the pitch which most other players wouldn't have also done in the same position (tho his celebration at the missed penalty was in very poor taste).

(I'm amused with that picture you've now found - at the time of the discussion about that, I was the only one saying that Suarez had moved towards the ball to stop it while others said it'd come straight at him; that picture proves it beyond all doubt).

Edited October 17, 2011 by The Nal

[ralph250]

On an unrelated liverpool matter I listen to 4 football podcasts (guardian, times, world football phone in and sunday supplement) and the tabloid blokes on sky unsurprisingly talk the most rubbish. They claimed yesterday that SAF would be happy that liverpool can now give them a competitive game, from memory while liverpool havent been able to compete with man utd for the league title (apart from 1 year) they have been able to give them a decent amount of good matches.

[eFestivals]

Im not sure it was a dig at City, he was just promoting the game.

yeah, and when he harangues a ref it's only because he wants the ref to do his job properly.