03 Jan 2024 09:29:38
Diving and acting is all part of the game now. I know it’s hard to accept, but I have no problem with it tbh. I would do anything I could to win and that is the kind of player I want at Liverpool. Have memories of Suarez great save in the World Cup then they missed the pen. thought that was fantastic and bleeding hilarious to boot. Win at all costs that is what we should do.

1.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 10:29:09
Not for me man. I’d rather win with some dignity intact.

I grew up playing rugby and I never understood why someone who dived in a match wouldn’t get slagged off to no end by his team for doing it.

2.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 12:10:58
I absolutely despise cheating in all forms especially diving. And I hate to see our players doing it. Grown men rolling around it’s embarrassing. You see kids now in grassroots football doing the same as their “idols”.

3.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 12:11:29
still don't think Jota dived.
in saying that I don't agree that we should win at any cost. This isn't what happened tho.

4.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 12:16:07
Keeping aside the morality. we have no rights to mock and abuse other players when they dive from here on. Jota dived. Adding prefix and suffix ain't changing facts.
If that penalty gets us the league and who cares!

5.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 12:45:08
We were winning 3-2 so that pen to make it 4-2 didn’t win us the points

I would take some time to think and draft something about pens soon

On one hand I hate it, on the other I can understand why players do it now due to the way the game is refereed

And I agree with a poster earlier, I did rather we win with more grace, poise and integrity. Otherwise, how would that make us different than City?

6.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 13:01:30
The referees have caused all this. They give 20/ 30 free kicks every match when players fall to the floor because they have felt the slightest of touches. Everybody seems to think that this is ok as long as an attacker doesn't do it in the box.

Conversely, referees don't give penalties when the attacker is fouled but stays on his feet. The keeper made contact with Jota's foot which disrupted his rhythm. It was not enough to knock him to the floor but it was enough to massivley increase the difficulty of the chance. You can tell that following the contact his standing foot is not where he would have naturally wanted to put it and as such he was left with 2 choices - try and score what would have been a much more difficult chance and not get a penalty or go down and have the chance from the spot.

At the end of the day, the keeper gained an unfair advantage by making contact with his foot but it would not have been given as a penalty had he stayed upright and off-balance and skewed the shot wide of the post. Had he stayed up and missed everybody would have been saying "he should have gone down and taken the penalty".

It is the same problem with Joelinton not being sent off. It was the most blatant yellow card in the first half but because we tried to get on with it the referee didn't book him and he therefore escaped a sending off when he was booked for a bad tackle in the second half. The referees are encouraging players to throw themselves in the floor through their refereeing decisions.

7.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 13:16:09
I'm with Faith on this one. I've watched that series of play multiple times and it absolutely doesn't make sense for Jota to dive there. He had already rounded the keeper, he had an empty net, he was still in control of the ball, and yet he still went down. He had a higher chance of scoring if he had just stayed on his feet instead of relying on Mo scoring the subsequent penalty. And it wasn't even confirmed at the time of his "dive" that a penalty would be given in the first place. That indicates to me that he was clipped by Dubravka and he legitimately fell. So no, definitely not a dive for me.

8.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 14:17:11
I'm struggling to understand the concept that there was contact, which there was, and then he dived. very strange

I hate diving and cheats as well. BUT IF, and it's a very big IF, those in charge of football would retrospectively ban players for actual diving, then players would think twice about going down

Players, coaches, managers and everyone else will always come up with ways of "cheating", and those in power do nothing about it. they've brought this situation upon themselves.

{Ed025's Note - i could not agree more JCL..

9.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 16:31:26
I agree on the general point, JLC. Would love it if diving/ feigning/ conning could be removed from the game.

But in terms of banning players for diving, I think it would be more difficult to implement (successfully) than we think. How can anybody prove categorically if a player dived and what are the parameters? Can it only be a dive if there is no contact at all? If so, can replays always prove, without doubt, that there was no contact at all? Could it still be a dive (and, therefore, a ban) if there is minor contact? I think that would be the hardest part to implement because I don't think you can tell conclusively from a television replay if a contact is sufficient to trip a player up (e. g. imagine running at full speed through the park and an exposed tree root just clips your big toe. If someone was videoing it and playing it back, it probably wouldn't look like much contact but it would probably send you sprawling on the floor. Or tap-tackles in rugby. Sometimes they are made with just a small contact between fingers of the tackler and boot of the runner but at full speed it sends the runner flying. Or a sprint hurdler who only just clips the top of a hurdle but at that speed and off balance it's enough to send them to the ground) .

And then you could also have players claiming they slipped. How could you prove or disprove that with absolute certainty.

I think it would be another VAR. Intentions would be good and the expectation would be that it would eradicate the controversy and contention of diving but I think it would just lead to even more argument and debate.

10.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 16:33:41
I think Jota felt the keepers hair follicle slam against his leg, enough to unbalance him to fall over, a couple of steps after he was clear of him.

11.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 16:36:29
Guys; if anyone pulled that rubbish against us we'd lose our collective minds and you all know it. He should have just scored.

12.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 16:21:54
Not for me, scout master NicolBecker Glory. Diving is cheating, end of story. IMO, What we should be advocating for when it comes to penalties (cos that's why we are all here), there should be a rule that if the attacker gets clearly clipped YET stays on his feet and then misses the goal, the advantage should be brought back and a pen should be awarded.

That would hugely mitigate against diving and wanting to go down and create an incentive to stay on one's feet esp. since we all know if a player gets clipped YET stays on his feet and misses, the pen is NEVER awarded.

Moreover if an attacker has clearly dived to get a pen, he should be banned retrospectively for 3 games. Trust me, NOBODY would dive after that. The Serie A had that rule many years ago as former Inter striker Adriano was banned retrospectively for 3 games after he dived to win a pen in a game. Just my take.

{Ed025's Note - that has actually happened in the prem a couple of seasons back Oli, Oumar Niasse was banned after allegedly diving mate, he was the first and last i believe, it was against Palace in 2017 and he got a 2 game ban..

13.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 16:57:19
This is nothing new guys. Players have been going over under contact in the box for decades.

I remember being hammered by my manager as a 16 year old for not going down in the box after being clipped and that was 30 years ago!

I’ve watched the Newcastle game back and there were at least 10 other situations were players have gone down under minimal contact all over the pitch but that just seems to be accepted.

I’ve watched the Jota penalty back about 20 times and it’s a trip and a penalty. The clip affects where his foot goes and impedes his natural running action. If he then takes a swipe at the ball whilst off balance and misses he gets cheated out of a rightful penalty as he was fouled.

14.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 17:16:03
It looked a dive to me. But agree with others it makes no sense to dive but I still believe he did. Banning players is the answer. You will get a few wrong but in the end the game is the winner.

{Ed025's Note - count me in mark..

15.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 17:48:43
I’m all for that Mark but it’s just impossible to implement. If someone dives and there’s no contact then fine, VAR can look at that and the player can be red carded as a result.

If however, there is contact then we are getting into the realms of already completely corrupt and incompetent officials trying to second guess whether the contact is enough to make someone go down. I don’t know about you but I don’t trust these fools to implement the rules as they are, never mind adding an extra layer of complexity.

What about when someone has their shirt pulled? 99 times out of 100 they will fall to the floor. Now someone would have to pull my shirt very hard to make me fall over but they do it to make sure the ref has seen that their shirt has been pulled and they get the free kick. Is that cheating?

I’ve never seen anyone have a go at someone who’s flopped to the floor after having their shirt pulled so does that mean we are ok with going over easily depending on what type of foul it is?

At the end of the day we just want to right decisions given and in the curious case of Diogo ‘Jelly Legs’ Jota the right decision was given so there really is nothing to see here.

16.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 18:29:17
100% dive by Jota and embarrassing. Diaz was more contact but I believe he too could have stayed up and rolled the ball in.

It's the refs and the officials that run the game who have created this mess. Salah gets ridden every game, fights to stay on his feet and gets nothing. No diff against Newcastle in one instance down he went no foul (middle of the pitch) . He plays hard and physical and it's great to see. But yet he is still perceived as someone who has made it an art in his career. He's had his moments like all of them now, but the vast majority of his career he's been honest.

The pundits have rightly been all over Jota for his "dive" but where have they been for the last several seasons calling it like it is, especially since the advent of VAR? I'd love to see them and us stamp it out but it won't happen. But for me we've been a fairly honest team under Klopp but that's changed a bit this season. Don't like to see it.

17.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 18:30:40
Becks if that was Kane or Son or Ali or Rashford etc I think you'd have a different take.

18.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 18:42:10
I think we are in serious danger of over complicating a very simple game in search of perfection . There are too many different organisations involved to have everything perfect.

I think the rules need to be simplified especially hand ball in the box and offside come to mind but the more we strive for perfection in the game via decisions by refs and players the more I think we will eventually tie the game in knots and it will just be a bad s**t show .

Take our game v Toulouse away and Quansah goal and they took the game back like 3 mins to find a foul to disallow the goal .

Their needs to be more simple rules to follow for fans refs and players.
I’d like repercussions for cheating that goes for the officials and players .

As I don’t like the idea of refs having power over the game it’s just wrong they need to assist the game and if they aren’t performing well enough then they are penalised in some sort of capacity. The same way players get fined for cards etc why can’t refs get penalised for wrong decisions. . I don’t know if that is possible or if that in itself is over complicating the game but something needs to change for the sake of the game.

19.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 19:11:50
I get your point BP and do admire your optimism with all things Liverpool. But I say Jota dived 95% of people think the same. Diaz is 50 50 and there was much more contact. Let’s start with the incidents like Jota’s then all of a sudden players like him will more often than not stay on their feet. Have to start somewhere.

20.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 19:12:40
That’s the problem Redflyer I have seen it from Kane, Son, Rashford etc. I see it 10 times a game from Grealish (he’s by far the best I’ve ever seen at making a non foul look like a foul) .

I have never however, heard any of those players get criticised as badly as Jota is being for this though. Kane always got praised from the same quarters who have now got the pitch forks out for Jota.

The worst thing about it is, most people agree that it was a penalty! So if that’s the case then how can it possibly be cheating? He got what he deserved.

It’s no different to a player falling if his shirt is pulled, a defender penned into the corner who feels contact behind him and falls forward, a striker with his back to goal who feels the defender behind him and goes over. It happens all over the pitch numerous times a game. Why is this particular one from Jota (which was actually a foul) being highlighted as the worst cheating anyone’s ever seen?

Liverpool are top and playing well so the green eyed monsters have their knives out.

21.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 19:37:35
Becks, the pundits and commentators now talk about contact as tho it's a nutmeg etc "he waited for it and threw himself down like he should" etc. If the attitude was like that when Jota got steamrolled at spurts two seasons ago we'd have another league title.

I agree I don't know why Jota is being slated. What about the pen for Villa to beat Burnley at home? Disgrace but there was MINIMAL contact IF ANY and nobody has said boo on that one.

It's us so like Mane and Salah who have been absolutely slaughtered by fans for being serial divers. Absolute tosh. This whole thing now w "he draws a lot of fouls" a la Grealish is now code for "he's a diving twat". I don't get it, it frustrates the life out of me watching. Refs are getting paid a nice sum for being low level celebrities in the limelight and they are going to keep making their paymasters happy.

The defenders are doing it too in the classic "can't beat em then join em" analogy. It's a sad indictment it's now just accepted by the match officials, VAR, TV companies and their pundits. The league is a massive money maker for them all and that's what it's all about. It's a "great leveler" and gives teams like Sheff Luton etc chances to upset the top sides w the goal to frustrate, time waste, upset rhythm, grab a breather and hopefully a goal to get a point or three. Can make it interesting to the last kick and the game all the more exciting for the vast majority of fans who are probably neutral.

Rant off not a sensitive subject for me at all ?.

22.) 03 Jan 2024
03 Jan 2024 22:05:46
BP noones saying that a player should be banned for ‘diving’ after they’ve been fouled to show the ref they have been fouled. But I think we’d like to see a ban for players that dive where no contact has been made. And that would be very easy to identify retrospectively.

Personally I’d also like to see a retrospective ban for players that go down holding their head when replays show no contact with the head. It’s cheating, and it happens every single game now without fail. I bet you could even make a spot bet on which minute it will happen.

{Ed025's Note - its getting beyond a joke now stoneage mate..

23.) 04 Jan 2024
04 Jan 2024 10:18:26
Spot on, Redflyer and BP. If these pundits kept their mouths shut and NEVER criticised the likes of Kane, Son, Alli, Vardy and recently Grealish for blatantly diving with next to NO contact to win penalties, then it is only fair that they keep their mouths shut now when other players (esp. foreign players? ) do it. keep it consistent or keep it moving and do one, me thinks.

24.) 04 Jan 2024
04 Jan 2024 10:25:53
So, cheats and cheating are fine?

Honour means nothing.

Sportsmanship means nothing?

Fairness means nothing?

OK then.