GREAT News for Everton Fans?

[AfloatinClaret]

That's how this article was tagged on Facebook, but I'm wondering how many Everton fans the Mail have asked how 'great' they think that'd be? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... PvFGQ8Mquw

[Zom Zom]

Apparently, feeling contact and going down is not diving. What a clown. It’s a contact sport. Trying to influence the referee that the contact is OTT by dropping to the floor is cheating.

[Devils_Advocate]

Apparently, feeling contact and going down is not diving. What a clown. It’s a contact sport. Trying to influence the referee that the contact is OTT by dropping to the floor is cheating.

Well it won us 3pts yesterday and most of our fans seemed full of praise for Barnes doing it

[Leisure]

Well it won us 3pts yesterday and most of our fans seemed full of praise for Barnes doing it

Rubbish. How did it win us 3 points???

[bobinho]

Apparently, feeling contact and going down is not diving. What a clown. It’s a contact sport. Trying to influence the referee that the contact is OTT by dropping to the floor is cheating.

Absolutely. And comments like that from a “professional” should see him hauled before the FA on a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.

[Devils_Advocate]

He played for contact and then threw himself to the floor to win the free kick we scored from. He pretty much did what Zom Zom is getting upset about and labelling cheating

[nil_desperandum]

He played for contact and then threw himself to the floor to win the free kick we scored from. He pretty much did what Zom Zom is getting upset about and labelling cheating

So, 2 points then?

[Lancasterclaret]

Well it won us 3pts yesterday and most of our fans seemed full of praise for Barnes doing it

There are plenty of examples of Barnes doing a Barnes, but yesterdays free kick was a proper free kick

[gandhisflipflop]

Well it won us 3pts yesterday and most of our fans seemed full of praise for Barnes doing it

Do you ever have a day off?

[Devils_Advocate]

Do you ever have a day off?

From what, its a perfectly fair comment. Bore off and go back to crying about Garlick and Pace

[Devils_Advocate]

So, 2 points then?

Yep if you want to be pedantic and ignore the real point of the comment. This place would be pretty sad if every took this approach to every discussion

[gandhisflipflop]

From what, its a perfectly fair comment. Bore off and go back to crying about Garlick and Pace

DA telling me to bore off. The irony.

[Devils_Advocate]

There are plenty of examples of Barnes doing a Barnes, but yesterdays free kick was a proper free kick

I never said it wasnt a free kick but he did what Zom Zom was moaning about.

Barnes had no intention of playing the ball and was just looking how he could get the defender to foul him - playing for the foul

The defender did make contact with Barnes but nowhere near enough to knock Barnes over - Barnes threw himself to the floor

Its a professional game and if the defender isnt great the attacker has every right to try and win a free kick but this isnt the majority opinion on here who beieve that simple contact isnt a foul and the attacker looking for contact is a form of cheating.

I was just pointing out thats exactly what Barnes did yesterday and helped win a massive game for us and Im ecstatic about it. I just dont now moan at other players for other teams doing the same thing as that would be hypocritical

[nil_desperandum]

Yep if you want to be pedantic and ignore the real point of the comment. This place would be pretty sad if every took this approach to every discussion

I think you need to be a bit less defensive and chill. I fully understood the point of your post, and agree with it, but it's not pedantic to point out that turning a draw into a win is worth 2 points not 3. (It's not having a dig at you, I always shake my head when I hear managers blaming refereeing decisions for costing them "phantom" points).
[Incidentally, I think it's exactly the sort of point that you would normally make in your role as DA.]

[FCBurnley]

Ah leave poor DA alone. He’s having a bad weekend

[Devils_Advocate]

I think you need to be a bit less defensive and chill. I fully understood the point of your post, and agree with it, but it's not pedantic to point out that turning a draw into a win is worth 2 points not 3. (It's not having a dig at you, I always shake my head when I hear managers blaming refereeing decisions for costing them "phantom" points).
[Incidentally, I think it's exactly the sort of point that you would normally make in your role as DA.]

Ok mate, but the reaction to my comment is precisely now why I mainly joke around. If you make a fair and reasonable comment (which I think mine was) but its deemed to be negative towards burnley it just gets jumped on and instead of getting a reasonable discussion you get people telling you to have a day off or nit picking at things.

Hope that makes sense of my reaction and I'll go back to just parodying some of the nonsense stuff people post rather than trying to have a genuine discussion about it

[dsr]

Lord knows I seldom expect to agree with DA, but I do on this one (whether he's trolling or not). Saturday's ref was clearly minded to give free kicks every time a player fell over after contact. If the ref chooses to treat that as a rule, and Watford got the benefit many times before Barnes came on, then I can't condemn Barnes for playing by the same rule; but the FA and the ref's organisation ought to stop playing as if that was the rule and go back to reading what the laws actually say.

[Zom Zom]

Well it won us 3pts yesterday and most of our fans seemed full of praise for Barnes doing it

It didn’t look like that to me. He was fouled. Admittedly he invited the foul, but he was fouled. Dropping like you’ve been shot when you feel someone’s about to make contact is cheating.

[FCBurnley]

Cheating is diving when there is no contact. Going to ground when there is contact is not cheating but it does give the referee a decision to make. A good referee will have no problem with that. Was Barnes fouled ? Yes. Did he need to go down. Maybe not. Was a fk the correct decision. Absolutely

[Devils_Advocate]

Vegas posted some highlights of the game from youtune so I checked this incident and watched it slowed down

As Barnes got the ball he glanced over his left shoulder to see where the defender was and then instead of looking to go forward with the ball he slowed down, lent forward and stuck is arse out a bit and then went down at the slightest touch.

Barnes had actually already started to fall forward before any contact was made which is one of the things people on here go mad about the most in terms of diving and cheating.

Im happy Barnes won us the free kick Zom Zom but there is no consistency in your approach as you will just try and make excuses for our players when if that would have been the Everton lad starting to go over before the contact you'd be calling him a cheat.

[DCWat]

Cheating is diving when there is no contact. Going to ground when there is contact is not cheating but it does give the referee a decision to make. A good referee will have no problem with that. Was Barnes fouled ? Yes. Did he need to go down. Maybe not. Was a fk the correct decision. Absolutely

Whilst accepting it’s the modern game, I still have issue with the view that “going to ground when there is contact is not cheating”.

Going to ground, buying a free kick, taking advantage of the situation, making a meal of it, going down easily, whatever term we want to use for it, it is cheating in my eyes.

It’s really difficult for referees which is why they do it but if a player has gone down, not because they were forced to the ground by a challenge, but because they thought they could con themselves a free kick, they’ve cheated.

It happens far too often - and Barnes is a regular at it. I can see why players do it - I hate to see it though, whether that’s by us or against us.

[claretandy]

Vegas posted some highlights of the game from youtune so I checked this incident and watched it slowed down

As Barnes got the ball he glanced over his left shoulder to see where the defender was and then instead of looking to go forward with the ball he slowed down, lent forward and stuck is arse out a bit and then went down at the slightest touch.

Barnes had actually already started to fall forward before any contact was made which is one of the things people on here go mad about the most in terms of diving and cheating.

Im happy Barnes won us the free kick Zom Zom but there is no consistency in your approach as you will just try and make excuses for our players when if that would have been the Everton lad starting to go over before the contact you'd be calling him a cheat.

I agree with DA on very little, but on this he's right, Barnes did what Barnes does, he "won" a free kick by slowing down to initiate contact.

IMO the Sarr dive, was much, much worse though.

[chorleyhere]

Barnes already occupied the space and protected his possession of the ball, if the opposition player decides to "occupy" the same space then the ref is right to give a foul. Protecting the ball is one of the skills of football and you see it every week. If Barnes falls over and then pretends he has been hurt then that is the part where the ref is conned, just as is pretending to have been touched when actually no contact was made.

[martin_p]

I’d have been seriously peed off had we conceded from a free kick awarded for the Barnes ‘foul’.

[dsr]

Barnes already occupied the space and protected his possession of the ball, if the opposition player decides to "occupy" the same space then the ref is right to give a foul. Protecting the ball is one of the skills of football and you see it every week. If Barnes falls over and then pretends he has been hurt then that is the part where the ref is conned, just as is pretending to have been touched when actually no contact was made.

That begs the further question - if Barnes had shrugged off the touch and kept playing, should the ref have given the free kick anyway? If the defender committed a foul then it's a foul whatever Barnes did, but if you're giving fouls for that sort of contact then you're going to have a lot of whistle and not much football.

[tiger76]

Lampard charged by the FA for his after match comments at Anfieldhttps://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61326212

This doesn't surprise me at all, if there's one thing the FA hate it's their officials being questioned regarding integrity.

Frank might well be facing a touchline ban I suspect.