2 Sept 2013

Football Cheats: No 31 - Danny Welbeck (LFC vs. Man Utd - Sep 2013)

Despite Danny Welbeck's embarrassing attempt to cheat the Reds out of victory, Liverpool yesterday maintained their 100% start to the season with deserved 1-0 win over Manchester United at Anfield.

Wayne Rooney's injury absence seriously compromised United's capacity for effective cheating, but as the old saying goes, 'cometh the hour, cometh the man', and with victory slipping away, up stepped Welbeck to take on the responsibility of trying to con the referee into awarding a penalty.

Rooney - one of the Premier League's most shameless divers - would've been proud of this beautifully executed piece of cheating, no doubt perfected on the Man Utd training ground:


As you can see, this is a blatant, unapologetic dive. Welbeck cynically and deliberately throws himself to the ground, and then has the chutzpah to complain about a non-existent 'foul'.

What other explanation is there? The only other possibility is that gravity is 20-times the earth norm in that part of the ground, and this caused Welbeck to be involuntarily sucked to the ground.

If the FA had any balls, they'd introduce retrospective bans for detestable cheating like this.

N.B. To pre-empt the predictable: I've highlighted dives by LFC players (including Suarez and Gerrard) many times in the past.



NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)


52 comments:

  1. happens all the time....I have accepted it as a part of game now.

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  2. On the side note, RVP deserved RED

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  3. Ashley Cole is a bigger cheat, last week Monday he nutmegged a player then dived then had the cheek to ask the ref for a yellow if he dived

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  4. You can clearly see him put his leg across Aspas in a deliberate attempt to con the ref. Thought it was a dive at the time and was even more sure when I watch the highlights on match of the day later.
    I also thought the atmosphere was brilliant at Anfield yesterday - and credit to the Man U fans for joining in the applause for Shanks!

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  5. How Van Persie didn't get a red is beyond me. He gets a yellow for a dirty foul. Then pushes a player. Then gets into a fight with Gerrard (which Gerrard was looking for in fairness) and then goes back to Skrtel. Mascherano got a red against them a few years back just for having a go at the ref.
    Positives from the game: we won, which gives us the start we needed - Evra getting clobbered by three LFC defenders - solid defensive display by Skrtel and Agger - we can win ugly which in fairness is the only way in these type of games. You don't get to dominate Man United for 90 minutes.
    Negatives: Johnson coming off injured (instead of Evra) in aforementioned clobbering - Lucas (more silly fouls and poor distribution) - Sturridge admitting he didn't want to shoot to prevent himself getting injured (not because he said it but because it's a risk and we lose a lot of threat if he can't shoot) - dropping back again to defend a narrow lead against the team with last season's top scorer up front.

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  6. And this is a website of the club Saurez plays for! Jokers. Bet your gonna win the league now eh lol

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  7. Why would you delete my comment? What was wrong about it?

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  8. You condone cheating. Read the site rules on the side of the page.

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  9. I was absolutely screaming because I thought the ref gave it a penalty after he pointed towards the penalty spot about 10 seconds after the incident. I thought he was indicating a penalty, but he was in fact pointing to the spot to resume play from after all!

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  10. Geez. I said it doesn't matter to me anymore as it happens all the time (very frequently) and I have accepted it as part of the game. This doesn't mean I support/encourage cheating, I just meant that one cannot help but digest the fact that its never gonna change. I don't understand why you would delete anyone's opinion or viewpoint about it as it will just add to the conversation. Never mind though, your site your rules.

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  11. I remember that Mascherano red, that killed the game very early on.

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  12. As an aside, Sturridge may be the best transfer deal Benitez ever made for us :-)

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  13. If you 'accept it as part of the game' then that means you condone cheating. It also means that if an LFC player cheats you'll have the same view. You're entitled to your opinion, but I do not want posts on the site that condone cheating in any way, shape or form. I advocate zero tolerance on cheating, and having posts here that basically accept it defeats the object.

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  14. haha from were we were sat i thought the same thing for a second,heart was in mouth

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  15. Actually, he deserved a slap in the face from his manager. The incidents he got involved in during the first half showed that he wasnt focused mentally.

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  16. can i just say lucas was outstanding if he had not played or gone of injuried there is no way we would be celebrating 3points ,if people want to look for bad displays look at coutinho or aspas,but not lucas

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  17. I was at the match yesterday, seated in the Anfield Road end and had a clear view of the Welbeck incident. It was an outrageous dive and the crowd went ballistic! Why wasn't Welbeck booked and why wasn't more made of it in the media?
    If this was Suarez, it would have been 'trial by Sky' and found guilty there and then.

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  18. or a slap in the face from anyone would have done

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  19. How exactly did Aspas play 'bad', or Coutinho for that matter? Just because an attacking player doesn't score/create, doesn't mean they played badly. Their primary role is to score/create, but they can contribute in other ways, and Coutinho/Aspas did a lot of great work without the ball, especially Aspas, who defended from the front extremely well.

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  20. Same here nick I was bouncing nearly fing at the ref until I realised it was a goal kick, and I see fergie has handed his watch over to moyes.

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  21. apparently, english referees seem very lenient or always give benefit of doubt to players of top clubs....eg...this one, rvp shld be given the red; his behavior in this match shld not be tolerated at all....

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  22. coutinho had is worse game for lfc imo and gave the ball away countless times same as aspas,i am not saying blame anyone ,i have just read all the posts from yesterday,and there are quite a few saying lucas was sloppy and poor ,so i am just pointing out that other players were two and a lot more so,lucas was immense yesterday especially the second half,and the majority of fans sat near me thought he was the man of the match,

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  23. I agree, Lucas had a good game. So did Skrtel - but people continue to slate both.


    Aspas has brilliant movement and was good in our first 2 league games. Against United his one touch play and flicks were left in the dressing room, but in terms of effort he still put a shift in. Overall he wasn't what he was in the previous matches and ultimately got subbed. I still think he's a decent signing so far.

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  24. Slowly but surely, MU 'll start to live the life without Sir Alex. Welbeck 'll have got the penalty had Sir Alex been Manager, now he gets away without booking. In future fr similar cases, MU forward 'll start to get booked & RVP 'll get Red. Tough times coming Devils, on & off the field.

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  25. I hate Welbeck. Just putting it out there. Also, well done Skrtel.

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  26. i cannot fault anyones effort ,the attack lacked that bit of magic thats all ,

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  27. ditto ray what did you think of lucas yesterday

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  28. Lucas had a very good game yesterday, broke up a lot of Utd attacks. I agree about Coutinho, he was largely ineffective but I think Utd did target him, he was clattered twice in the first half, one of the tackles should have been a red card

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  29. cheers it was i was in the anfield road end as well and thought i must have been watching a different game

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  30. If you feel that giving away free kicks near the penalty box is outstanding then so be it. But I disagree. A good DM breaks up play much higher up the pitch.

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  31. I'll have a go, if you need someone?

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  32. must have been electric at that end when sturridge scored! especially on the wave of passion straight after kick off!

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  33. hold on mate you will have to join the que

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  34. thats fine if we are further up the pitch but not when our backs are against the walls

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  35. it was mate but the final whistle was total madness

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  36. We've seen worse. At least there was actual contact, but for sure, the only person in control of if Welbeck went to ground or not was himself.


    I have an open issue however - if you don't go to ground you don't get a penalty. In the PL a striker gets plenty of punishment and you can be tripped, shoved, shouldered and dragged around all day and not get a call. The only thing that actually gets a penalty in the box is when you go to ground. It's a situation that begs for play-acting and it's there are two groups involved. The less likely you are to get a call from the ref, the more play-acting you'll do. The more you play at going to ground the more hardened the refs become. So the refs are in no small way responsible. They don't make those brave calls and in turn the players feel like they are not protected.

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  37. I agree mate - Aspas just didn't seem at the races yesterday. Poor first touch and not holding the ball up well but he still worked very hard as did the rest of the team.


    I just wish we wouldn't keep sitting back for the entire second half of games!!!

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  38. I thought Coutinho was poor. He gave the ball away a lot and looked lost for ideas.

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  39. we got away with it yesterday ,but if they had scored ,i doubt we would have been able to respond,aspas may need time to adjust to our game,the bench showed yesterday that we still need some match winners

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  40. Attack was a bit subpar, but let's remember they played a pretty physical team just 3 days before..

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  41. it was 5 days since the last game,i am not having a go,it just shows how much we need some more attacking players,when you looked at our bench yesterday ,we did not have anyone who was a game changer(stirling and ibe may well become game changers in time)but we need someone now,great start lets push on pretty easy next six games on paper,we could and should still be top of the league,then we have some hard games,get the players in now and get them used to the pressure forget january

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  42. so can there be retrospective punishment for the offence

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  43. It all boils down to inconsistency from refs, but that in itself in near to impossible to rectify. Having to extra assistants by the lines was a good idea but even they don't do much.
    The rules have to be rectified and a diving punishment needs to be inforced.
    I don't know .

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  44. I thought it was going to be 1-1 after van persie had that late chance. it would have been great to stick it to the utd away fans just a bay or 2 away

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  45. i was in the upper tier so unfortunatly i did not have that satisfaction,but great view

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  46. Players are encouraged to do this ours included,until the Fa use retrospective bans,it'll continue
    The rule is already in place,no new rule needed
    1 match ban for bringing the game into disrepute ,video evidence is allowed,just use this and diving would stop sharpish,baring in mind Suarez and gerrard ain't the best at staying on their feet in the box though !!!

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  47. Lucas is definitely getting back to 2 years ago.. breaking up play, but also he is up top passing.. not just dropping deep.. Coutinho had a bad game (black and blue probably) but Man U I suspect had orders to keep him out of the game.. he looked like the meat in a 2-3 man sandwich a lot of the time, that is not his fault.. I think Aspas will be ok, just need time to understand the EPL.. but all in all I'd take 38 for an 0 against any day at the end of the season :-p :))

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  48. Retrospective action, as JK has said many times. Allow the FA to go back over TV footage and pick out incidents for punishment. I don't see why it would be such an issue. They'd have at least as much to look at as the ref did on the day, and we allow the ref to make red card decisions that can see players suspended for 3 matches while similar actions can go unnoticed and mean nothing happens. Or what they do in rugby league here in Australia where they put a tackle "on report". Award a free kick at the time of the incident but signal that it should be reviewed later on. I'm convinced that once the players realised they were being always watched and any acting could be retrospectively punished they would clean up their game. Right now they believe they can get away with it and that has to stop.


    Having said that, I think the Wellbeck dive would be a yellow card at worst. There was actual contact and he simply allowed himself to fall to ground. I actually don't think it's so bad, but a good call from the ref to dismiss it, I think he got it right on the day.

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  49. Felt to me like we stopped believing we could play the same style of game against United. Lots of long balls from the keeper and misplaced passes in attack, not a huge amount of patience and felt like panic at times when United would close us down. Maybe it was just that kind of game because United were about the same. Just looking back to those periods against Stoke and Villa, sure they are totally different teams, we absolutely dominated through the middle of the park and had them chasing shadows. I think we can do the same against United but the confidence or the precision wasn't there. Maybe the players are not ultimately good enough, I don't know.

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  50. it was not a great game they rarely are ,the pressure on the players is immense,

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  51. not if we scored 35 in our next game though;-)

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