Luis Suarez was lucky to remain on the field during Sunday's win over Manchester City, and after a season of mostly excellent behaviour on the pitch, he left himself down by reverting to his old diving antics. Histrionics aside, Suarez is far and away the best attacking player in the Premier League this season, and deserves to win the Player of the Year award, but Man United legend Gary Neville admits that he had doubts that the Uruguayan could reach his current level of brilliance.
Speaking to EA Sports over the weekend, Neville hailed Suarez's performance levels as 'the highest quality', but conceded he once had doubts about the striker's overall quality. He explained:
"12-18 months ago I wondered if Suárez was really top class. There is no doubt about that now. His work rate and tenacity is just incredible".
Over the last '12-18 months', Suarez's involvement in a series of unsavoury incidents has obscured his football genius at times, but it has always been there, and now that the Uruguayan has - for the most part - left the cheating/gamesmanship behind, the quality of his football is consistently shining through.
I may be one of Suarez's biggest critics (and I make no apology for that), but I've never doubted his quality, and the Uruguayan has been top class (in terms of football performance) ever since he signed for Liverpool.
Suarez is Liverpool's Eric Cantona, and like the Frenchman, he's sparked an on-field revolution at Anfield, which has propelled the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.
Man City is a step-backwards, though, for Suarez. The overriding memory of his contribution to that game is constant diving/going to ground easily, and hassling the referee, but hopefully it's a one-off, and we'll return to lauding his football skills next week.
Author: Jaimie K
Speaking to EA Sports over the weekend, Neville hailed Suarez's performance levels as 'the highest quality', but conceded he once had doubts about the striker's overall quality. He explained:
"12-18 months ago I wondered if Suárez was really top class. There is no doubt about that now. His work rate and tenacity is just incredible".
Over the last '12-18 months', Suarez's involvement in a series of unsavoury incidents has obscured his football genius at times, but it has always been there, and now that the Uruguayan has - for the most part - left the cheating/gamesmanship behind, the quality of his football is consistently shining through.
I may be one of Suarez's biggest critics (and I make no apology for that), but I've never doubted his quality, and the Uruguayan has been top class (in terms of football performance) ever since he signed for Liverpool.
Suarez is Liverpool's Eric Cantona, and like the Frenchman, he's sparked an on-field revolution at Anfield, which has propelled the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.
Man City is a step-backwards, though, for Suarez. The overriding memory of his contribution to that game is constant diving/going to ground easily, and hassling the referee, but hopefully it's a one-off, and we'll return to lauding his football skills next week.
Author: Jaimie K
29 goals +12 assists.....................say no more!!!
ReplyDeleteSuarez had what you might call an 'off-day' by his standards against City, but still showed great strength for the first goal by brushing off two players, one of them with his arse, before slotting through an inch perfect pass for Sterling to score. Even at his very worst he's a bundle of energy, tenacity and ideas.
ReplyDeleteOn a day when we remember our lost supporters , you still have to write this utter tripe. The last load of rubbish of yours I had the misfortune to read was when you didn't even know where we were supposed to be playing.
ReplyDeleteJamie u say one of his biggest critics. Top goal scorer top of the assist charts, it's fair to say he's the driving force of our possible league title. U have said several times the club should never have bought him due to his biting issue with ajak and u said we should have sold him after the 2 incidents for us. Now seeing the greatness of this man do u hold yr hand up and say u was wrong and the club was totally correct in keeping this player who is currently operating at the level the premier keague hadn't sin for a long time?
ReplyDeleteThe way he turned and shrugged off the defender with his backside was classic Dalglish - he was an absolute master.
ReplyDeleteBut somebody needs to take him to one side and remind him he needs to keep his head. Channelling his energy in a positive way is why he has been so successful this season - and with Sturridge an injury doubt and the title so close the last thing we need is a suspension or some other distraction due to a recurrence of his past antics.
No, I was not wrong. My views on Suarez remain the same. At the time, I argued that LFC shouldn't sign Suarez, and I had concrete, valid reasons for that view. Just because LFC are successful now doesn't change that.
ReplyDeleteSuarez is an important player for LFC, but that doesn't cancel out his prior history, or the mass of negative publicity he created after joining the club.
People who change their views ins situations like this are fickle. I acknowledge Suarez is a great player; I've stated it many times, but I'm not going to change valid views I held in the past just because he's doing well for the club.
I think the problem with Suarez diving is that when Liverpool start to struggle he starts to panic and because like he has said before he wants to win so much he will try and dive to win the game. I am not condoning the behaviour but that is what it seems like when he starts diving in matches. Yes, he has dived in matches when we are winning this season but nowhere near as much as when we are losing or the game is going out of our hands.
ReplyDeleteFunny, my overriding memory of his contribution was the way he setup Sterling for the opener.
ReplyDeleteThat's called 'Suarez blindness'. It's a sickness.
ReplyDeleteThat's called a snide remark !
ReplyDeleteMy overriding memory was when I started to pull my hair out when I thought Clattenburg was going to send him off with a second yellow on a dive!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, his bad behavior in that regard overshadowed the great play he made. Could have put us in a real bind if he had sent off (and it would have been wholly justifiable of Clattenburg to do it).
Can nae be cured neither :-) But seriously, I agree with you he needs to keep his head together. I do think refs and people in general still expect the worse of him so every dodgy situation immediately is held against him. Kompany with his hands all over him, with any different player would have been a penalty and we know Clattenburg isn't afraid to give them either. The situation with DeMichailis, he actually did catch him. On the other hand, he caught his foot so why he would grab his knee is about as big a mystery as Heskey always grabbing his head when someone kicked him in the shin. Nevertheless, there were a couple of situations where he lost his cool and I agree he is much much more effective when he doesn't do that.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a 'snide remark'. It's humour, and Eric knows that, which is why he took it as such.
ReplyDeleteWhich is what makes Clattenburg a top ref. He wouldn't mar a brilliant game like that by sending off one of its star attractions just because the book said he could. You could see he wasn't even too happy about having to send Henderson off but there was no way around that.
ReplyDeleteThat's not answering his question though. The straight question was do you still think we should hav sold Suarez
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in the sense that Clattenburg performed well the other day. I thought he got just about everything right except for the Sturridge penalty that wasn't called and the Suarez second yellow that he didn't give.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you that we don't want the ref to mar the game by sending off the best player. But the bottom line is that if the best player committed acts to deserve a sending off, then he should be sent off. That's not Clattenburg putting us in that position... that is Suarez putting us in that position.
And thank goodness Clattenburg didn't send him off or there's a good chance the game would have turned out much differently.
Yes, I think LFC should've sold Suarez. If I owned the club, he would've been dumped after the biting incident, if not before.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, the views I have on LFC are formed at the time events are happening. If things change in the future, it doesn't mean the views held when a specific incident occurred are retrospectively wrong.
It can be though. Though good to get a straight answer
ReplyDeleteAdd penalties won - direct contribution to 50% Liverpool's 93 goals!
ReplyDeleteWatched the game again, and well he should be exonorated 100% of any charge against him.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow he got, really shouldn't have been a yellow - Demichelis made a meal out of it. The "dive", well he got clipped and probably wanted to exact some revenge on Demichelis, and made a meal of it - ultimately he was clipped, so dive it is not. He went down easy on a couple other challenges, but again there was contact, so no dive. He also had a stonewall penalty denied. Did he lose his cool? A bit, but it was a title deciding match, but ultimately he stayed a fair bit behind the line, and didn't do anything outrageous.
As for his play, well he set the tone for the game with the opening assist - an interception from Navas, fought off 2 players - there's nobody in the league that regularly muscles people off the ball like him - excellent piece of work.
As for the second goal - made another one-timer play to sterling that set up the counter which ended up getting the corner - again a signature touch that nobody else really does.
Apart from that, he really should have had scored - on at least 5 different occasions he made the perfect run, and was wide open - Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Allen, Flanno, failed to put him through. Not selfishness, but perhaps nerves, or tunnel vision - on another day he might have bagged a couple. 2 of the 3 offsides were hairline caused by a delay in releasing the ball by the passer - one was a lapse - well played by MC. But overall, had a very positive contribution on the game.
Now, as I said, watched it again - without the commentary, and it was not the most "panicky" performance I've seen from Suarez, and actually did quite a bit right.
What we should be talking about is the stinker Johnson had.
What's this? A Uruguayan defending Suarez?
ReplyDeletePardon me while I choke...
;-)
I'm not saying you here but football fans in general. What grinds my gears with football fans and pundits too is that even if their is minimal contact and the player goes down then it is not a dive it is going down easy. To me diving and going down easy are the same thing. Fair enough he got touched but if it's not enough to make you go down it is their for a dive as you are trying to gain an advantage. People go on about momentum and such which at times yes it sometimes it is momentum but watch Messi, he get's kicked, grabbed hold of and if they could and get away with it they probably would drop kick the guy but yet he stays up the majority of the time even when in full momentum. My question really is, why is it acceptable for a player to go down easy and not dive?
ReplyDeleteAlso with the Suarez incident no matter how many times I watch it I still cannot see the contact being made and in my eyes Suarez knew that he wasn't getting to the ball so threw himself to the ground but after rewatching it just now he was holding his ankle not his knee so not quite Heskey ;)
Messy is 3ft tall and has a low centre of gravity - easy for him to stay on his feet.
ReplyDeleteBut you would have missed on the "new" Suarez who tries to stay on his feet (most of the time) during matches and energy/tenacity that is matched by only a few in the premier league.
ReplyDeleteAll admit he lost it a bit - but not the rage-aholic of old.
ReplyDeleteI don't need to defend him anyways - 41 goals + assist in 29 games does that on its own.
LFC would still have Sturridge, and someone else would've come to the fore. Whether it's St. John, Hunt, Toshack, Keegan, Dalglish, Rush, Aldo, Fowler, Owen, Torres etc, Liverpool always find great strikers.
ReplyDeleteBy the looks of it would have been Aspas.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that he looks taller than that on my TV but they do say TV makes you look bigger....
ReplyDeleteI never realised either that a high centre of gravity makes you more likely to cheat it must unbalance the body AND the mind then.:-)
Suarez is no giant either and he has proven before he can stay on his feet under these challenges so he clearly is able to.
ReplyDeleteI'll call lthe paramedics!..... but I really should finish this book first. :-)
ReplyDeleteI believe Suarez's great desire to win (which is great) leads him have errors in judgement. I have seen him get pushed many times during games this year yet still trying to stay on his feet.
ReplyDeleteAs a tall person I can vouch for that.
ReplyDeletePost Owen and pre Torres. Who?
ReplyDeleteI think the raw emotion of the day got the best of Suarez, at least I hope that's all it was. The club and the player have obviously worked a lot on helping Suarez control his emotions and channel it positively. I'm sure he'll have spent a lot of time with Dr Peters and it's obviously working as this year, until last Sunday, his behaviour has been pretty much exemplary. On Sunday we saw his bad side but as I said I'm hoping it was just the emotion pouring out from everywhere down to the poignancy of the occasion that made him resort to the snarling, street player we used to see so much of. I've never seen Stevie in tears before which shows how it affected even the coolest of heads.
ReplyDeleteSuarez on Sunday was however a red card waiting to happen and in all honesty he probably should've gone which, given sturridge injury, could've finished our title charge, all that hard work, for a moment of madness. Stevie never would've forgiven him. Or would the rest of us. Fingers crossed it will be an isolated incident which I'm sure Brendan will be addressing with him this week
messrs hansen and hamman both said on motd it wasnt a dive. Secondly which english player doesnt dive? Phil Neville? Young? We see it all the time. Why is it a big deal when suarez goes over too easily?
ReplyDeleteHis performance levels have always been brilliant. in the past he didnt have faith in those surrounding him so tried to make his own goals - who can blame him surrounded by downing, carol, adam etc. Look at this season all barring one of sterlings goals have been provided by suarez.
Even against city though by his standards he had an off day he still created sterlings goal. First by his over zealousness he gave away a foul which resulted in Harts free kick being sent back to him via navas and then his pass for the goal. Further he creates nervousness just by his presence which allows others to benefit. Remember he also had a decent penalty shout against kompany.
I agree that he is our cantona - because he is inspiring people to perform out of their skins. when youngsters see a man of this calibre work his socks of for the cause it makes them want to up their level. how many times have we seen this season sterling snatch onto an assist meant for sturridge simply because he's just moved in front of him!
Yes suarez does have his antics - but hey all players do in their own way - they just dont get picked up for it. Otherwise janusaj, young and rooney have all gotten away with murder. Even in the last manchester derby fellaini got away with gbh on zabaletta - if it were upto some had suarez done that he would have been shifted to guantanamo!
If we want to be high and mighty then the standard should be the same across the board. The FA shouldnt appeal to fifa to have rooney's ban reduced for violent conduct. Or shouldnt give Terry 4 matches for blatant use of racist words whereas the allegations against suarez were one man's word against another - yet he got 8 games.
I know your argument will be that i am worshipping suarez - thats far from the truth - i am simply asking that ALL players regardless of nationality or race be judged by the same standard.
Yes suarez makes mistakes and yes so did rafa - but the balanced opinion is that one has pushed us almost back onto the perch and for the other even now half the team is made up by his buys - including sterling! Lets appreciate the goodness - for none of creation is perfect - otherwise god would have stuck to angels!
Speaking of Messi, was interested to read a stat last year along with CR.....out of some 70 goals or so scored between the two....Messi scored all with his left foot....CR scored with both feet and a number of headers. Messi is class but seemingly limited. Suarez scores with all his body parts :)
ReplyDeleteA city player (was it Milner?) took a similar fall not too long afterwards i.e. his boot seemed to get stuck in the ground and he toppled over with no obvious contact. The rule is a hard one to get right but the conclusion that if it's not a foul and the player is on the ground then it must have been a dive is not correct. If the ref can call play-on and ignore the incident then I think that's what he should do. The only question is why play was stopped at all. City may have a case to argue but it's a technical one and has little to do with actual football. Saying you were cheated because a player was not penalised for a technical infringement and thus not sent off is a weak argument.Suarez falling down has no impact on the game beyond the rule of potentially being shown a yellow card.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned with the growing tendency of players to surround the referee imploring him to make certain decisions and issue cards. That has to stop now. It's ugly and the longer it goes on the worse it gets. Refs should not have to deal with that kind of pressure and I think there needs to be an option for refs to issue team warnings. The captain will be entitled to make an enquiry or perhaps even offer his opinion, but when a mob of players rush the referee like that there is no method by which he can quickly and effectively get them to go away. It's intimidating and shouldn't be a part of the game.
You jest, but I think people need to put it in perspective. Apparently Suarez had an indifferent game but that first goal wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for his efforts. Don't you think something is a bit awry when we're still talking about things other than the actual football that was played? I think we're a bit obsessed with refereeing decisions and our ideas about how a player behaves. Suarez is a great contributor to this but he doesn't force anyone to talk about it over and over again. His football has done the talking this season and that's acknowledged but somehow his non-yellow still seems to be the biggest talking point. It was a simply brilliant goal in possibly the game of the season and it seems to be forgotten. I think Eric is the sane one in that regard. He remembers the football moments, not the soap-opera drama.
ReplyDeleteMy response to this is that if you don't go down you don't get the foul. I think that's wrong. If you get clipped making a run in the box and that means you lose control you won't get a penalty if you stay on your feet. Have you ever seen a penalty given for contact where a player didn't go down? Refs just don't give it. To me that's a problem. I don't intend to defend diving, there is nothing honest about even "going down easy", I just think there is another side to the story that seems to get ignored.
ReplyDeleteDiouf, Heskey, Dundee...Heskey...
ReplyDeleteHe was "up to his old tricks" A little against City. And I think its because he was frustrated. He wasn't playing at his best, and he clearly wanted to win at any cost. That doesn't mean I condone it, I'm just saying, when the stakes are high and he is frustrated, this is where is 'natural' state reverts to, or his 'instincts' so to speak. Some players fade out of the game. Some players rally others around them. Some lead by example. Some let the bad side to them creep in. Suarez is in the latter, but he is so much better than he was, which is great. I can forgive him acting up once in 20 games.
ReplyDeletecome on Jamie keep it real! You have written about our struggles in the transfer market but now think we would have found someone to replace the irreplaceable!
ReplyDeleteHi Jaimie,
ReplyDeleteVery positive contributions. I congratulate you. But why is it that everyone goes after Suarez when there are so many other players around the world who play-act even when they are not 'touched' by an opponent ? Is it because he is a wonder to watch, with his skills and antics ?
More often than not, what I realize is that every other non-Kop supporter have a dig at him for going down to the ground when he is fouled. When he stays on his feet, the opposing players try some other means to foul him, like the blind side of the ref. Have you noticed that ? What the refs fail to see are the off-the-ball incidents which are belted on Suarez.
There are a few incidents when he was mauled over and the offenders got either a yellow card or just a verbal warning. Remember the Everton-Liverpool game when Miralles went for his knee full weighted. I'm a footballer, and believe me, it really hurts to the bone. Not surprising he only got a yellow card for that. If it was Suarez, wouldn't it be a RED card ????
Wait wait wait.
ReplyDeleteJK I disagree with much you say (a lot on anything suarez related) but I keep coming back because you don't change your tune which I respect. Not many writers in any medium do that.
But I find it surprising that by your statement above the bite and not the racial slur was your tipping point.
Yes you said if not before but seems like the bite was the bigger issue or you.
Can you explain your position?
From my pov (I'm Uruguayan I'll admit) I saw it the following way:
- suarez knew exactly what he was saying and that it would "annoy" evra.
- pretty sure evra said something first which suarez thought made the negro comment fair. Ie you dirty sudaca.
- while suarez was wrong to say what he did he was treated differently because in England he is an Other and from an unimportant minority.
Yes, I watched the game again too. Anyone that watches it carefully and does not hate Suarez will agree Demichilles made a meal out of it. Watch it again and you will see that he is writhing in pain,stops and takes a quick glance up to see if the ref is coming and then starts writhing in pain again.
ReplyDeleteThat is just as unsporting as anything Suarez did but doesn't warrant a mention from supposed impartial journalists.
He doesn't get near enough credit for his ability to pass. There was also another brilliant pass he made between Sterling and Sturridge in the first half. One of them should have got to it.
ReplyDeleteIf loving Suarez is wrong, I don't want to be right.
ReplyDeleteI understand that and I understand that is why but that means something surely has to change. I still believe it is technically diving though but it doesn't just happen inside the box, it happens outside and more often than not it is when the player realises that he isn't going to get anywhere with it.
ReplyDeleteIf Suarez had committed a real foul, like Henderson or even the one for his first yellow, I'm sure Clattenburg would have sent him off. Or even if it had been a cut and dry dive. In this case DeMichellis flew in like a madman himself and Clattenburg was not going to send him off for the sake of acting by the book. That's what good refs do imo. And no, I would not have had any problems if the same thing would have happened with say, Aguero or Silva.
ReplyDeleteMy point was that messrs hansen and hamman actually concluded it wasnt a dive - he was touched.
ReplyDeleteFor city to surround the ref to send him off - was a disgrace in itself - but just shows the nervousness his presence causes.
I guarantee we would be no where near the title if it were not for suarez. Not because he has scored the most goals or provided the most assist probably in europe - but because his presence is a galvanising force for the likes of sturridge, sterling, coutinho and henderson. None of whom had shown anywhere near this form - with an exception for sterling because of his age.