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Mained and shamed
By SHAUN CUSTIS ~ Published: 08/10/2010
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3170428/Danny-Murphy-blames-Tony-Pulis-Sam-Allardyce-and-Mick-McCarthy-for-thuggery-on-the-football-pitch.html

It has turned into a season of ugly, vicious tackles, broken legs and players' careers hanging in the hands of hospital surgeons. The win-at-all-costs culture is threatening to blight the Premier League. Clubs are stamping out the beautiful game in a desperate bid to avoid relegation and the millions of pounds in lost revenue that comes with it. But now one of the top-flight's most respected and senior professionals has found the courage to say 'enough is enough' and in an unprecedented interview has named and shamed the guilty offenders.

Fulham skipper Danny Murphy, a former Liverpool and England midfielder, is outraged by the tactics employed by three clubs in particular - Wolves, Blackburn and Stoke. And he holds their high-profile managers responsible. Murphy said: "Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves, you can say they're doing what they can to win the game. But the fact is that the managers are sending the players out so pumped up that inevitably there are going to be problems. You can look at the players and blame them. But every team has a captain and a manager who is in charge. The thing I think people miss is that it is the managers who dictate what the players do and how they behave. If you have a manager in control of his team, who doesn't allow these things to go on, you have a more disciplined team."

In the last month, Murphy has seen Stoke's Andy Wilkinson produce a horror tackle on Moussa Dembele which Fulham boss Mark Hughes claimed could have finished the Belgian striker's career. There was also Wolves midfielder Karl Henry's challenge on Bobby Zamora, who went off with a broken leg. And the Cottagers claimed El-Hadji Diouf deliberately jumped into keeper Mark Schwarzer before Blackburn scored.

Do you think certain managers openly encourage their players to go in 'hard' on their opposition?.

Media figures such as Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson who come from a totally different era when violence on the field was acceptable, offering such pathetic excuses as teams 'Don't like it up 'em'. Don't help.
I can remember one season a few years back during Allardyce's reign at Bolton when after a tempered game vs Arsenal (I think) Kevin Nolan (Bolton captain at the time) had near enough openly admitted after the game that he and the team had been given orders to rough up the opposition by his manager because it would disrupt Arsenals rhythm, admitting to something along the lines of making a 'welcome to the game' type challenge. And all the media at the time could focus on was that Arsenal were 'fragile' and they didn't like it when teams like Bolton got in their face.

We need to get rid of this notion that it's OK to go out and intentionally seek to injure your opponent, that it's OK because breaking someones legs is just a quintessential ( spell check ) part of the English game and the mentality is an acceptable one. The more people that speak out about it from all corners of the league the better.

apart from andy wilkinson stoke are not a dirty side at all.

overpaid jessies should try playing sunday league

Absolute rubbish.

Ive watched some games from the 70s and 80s and they fly in every second and only have 1 subsitute.

Please watch the Chelsea v Leeds FA Cup final 1970 replay


Then complain.

Now that was a match!

 

What shite.......sorry, but, I enjoy the physical side of the game, and the more the ref's adopt the foreign refs view regarding tackles, is the day I stop going.

Fannies!

anyway, the substantive point

The Laws of the game, in the way they are applied by the refs on instruction from the Governing bodies, are now so protective of players that tackles now deemed worthy of a straight red and in some cases oppobrium and media coverage afterwards wouldn't have caused a batted eyelid 20 years ago

Is the game better for that protection? Not sure. Flair players made it through the 60s and 70s OK enough.

Ridic article.

Complete load of pish. Bunch of poofs need to man up.

If football in Scotland and England turns into the pansy shite on the continent I will look elsewhere for my sporting enjoyment.

I stopped reading when it said 'the beautiful game'

That died years ago.

lol at this critcism when mark hughes is your manager

You haven't watched QPR play this season then :)

I must admit I'm amazed that some are comparing to the 70's and 80's! Footballers are like Gazelles in comparison to footballers of the past and the game is played at a pace no side from that era would live in. IMHO a broken leg is massively more likely now than then regardless of how games were played then.

I think the comparison is completely valid

The flair players of the 70s and 80s turned it on in an environment where, whilst the play was slower, they were far more likely to get lumps kicked out of them than the flair players are now

Think the messages are mixed though. Wilkinson and Henry's challenges aren't acceptable no matter what era. De Jong's tackle was fine though.

Spot on.


As for intent, unless there is an open-and-shut case, as with De Jong's challenge on Alonso, then the only person who really knows is the man making the tackle. The Manchester City player has been vilified since his challenge on Ben Arfa, with Newcastle even demanding retrospective punishment, but on first viewing it is easy to see why referee Martin Atkinson let play continue.

It was a good tackle but proving De Jong intended to cause the eventual damage is a tough job.

Where Murphy is absolutely on the mark is with his criticism of players failing to weigh up the potential consequences of their challenges.

He says: "The pace in which some players go into tackles now is ridiculous. There's no brains involved in the players who are doing that.

"I don't believe players are going out to break another player's leg but there has to be some logic and intelligence involved. If you are going at someone at a certain pace and you don't get it right you are going to hurt them."

No names from Murphy but allow me. Step forward Henry, whose challenge against Wigan was everything Murphy was referring to. Uncontrolled, at pace, lacking any semblance of common sense and very fortunate not to result in serious injury for the tumbling Gomez.

Sadly, there have always been bad tackles in football. And the growing acceptance of what some laugh off as the early "reducer" - clumsy code for a hefty challenge usually inflicted on the opposition's most gifted player - is crass.

So is the Premier League too dirty or any dirtier than in the past? Not in my opinion. Is there a problem of growing recklessness from players without thought for what might result from rash tackles? Definitely.

Lumps kicked out of them - 100% agree. Broken leg tackle from people running in at 100m pace - no. IMO. I'm not a huge fan of Danny Murphy when he speaks out usually but his comment about no intelligence is bang on imo.

Knew it wouldn't take long before you were stuck in the sports section Paul, but geez louise!   rotflmfao  Least you won't have to worry about pink posts from me on blonde.   ;)