Twice Steven Gerrard has taken the time to condemn foreign players diving in interviews. In one instance he stated that, if he saw a team-mate diving he’d say to them “WE don’t do that here. Cut it out” and that he “jumps off his sofa” when he watches football at home and someone dives.
This is Steven Gerrard pretending that he has been caught by the Bolton defender last season. This is crafty, as he knows that generally, when two players come in for a tackle, the referee is most likely to be watching ONE player’s feet as he cannot watch both. This allows him the space and time to jump as if the other player has caught him.
Steven Gerrard’s much maligned decision to dive for a penalty in the Champions League final is only contested by Liverpool fans. As you can see here, he uses the same unusual ‘Straight-standing-leg, flick-back-the-kicking-foot’ technique present in his other dives (most notably the Sheffield Utd penalty). This is an unusual way to dive when there is no low level contact, which in any sane referee’s eyes would blow his attempt to cheat out of the water.
Fortunately for Steve, the referee is blind.
This is the penalty from the Liverpool vs Sheffield Utd match. Rob Styles made himself out to be a prize moron by saying he thought there was contact, then upon being proven wrong said “oh, well the Sheffield Utd player was trying to take Gerrard down in his own penalty box”. This was another example of Gerrard straightening his standing leg and flicking back his foot to throw himself off balance.
It may seem that it is just the referees and Andy Gray who are blind to Gerrard’s constant diving. That however, is contested by the ever pseudo-intellectual comments made by “our la” Rafa Benitez (the humble, intelligent, and fair one of the two latin managers).
This is a quote taken from an interview with Benitez after he had analysed a video of the Bolton match.
“Perhaps they have other rules here but the referee should protect the players who want to play football.
Bolton were diving all the time and you know they like free-kicks.”
And last but not least, THE whole team montage from soccer AM against Bolton (they tried to find a dive from the Bolton players in the same match but couldn’t).
… and people tell me I have rose-tinted glasses on. 😀
This is a picture of Gerrard flying, somehow splaying both ankles outward against hungary, which was condemned as the worst dive of them all. No contact, but as usual, Gerrard’s legs goto jelly in the box.
Ian Wright claims that it’s the foreigners fault for bringing it into the game (after seeing this dive), and that we should do it too to keep the game balanced. Perhaps that’s fair, or perhaps Steven Gerrard should not state in interviews his UTTER DISGUST with diving when he does it on a regular basis.
The Drogba article is next…
Editor’s Note: This article is not meant to incite Liverpool fans but to highlight the hypocrisy of one Steven Gerrard, and to point out that diving, no matter who the diver is, is never acceptable. So please, this is not a matter of Liverpool’s honour, but about football.
The author is a Chelsea fan, who is preparing an article on Drogba’s diving (hopefully).
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