Birmingham defender Matt Taylor made a horrific tackle on Eduardo Da Silva which resulted in one of the most horrific scenes on video and a broken foot for the Croatian. This is an old story which has been gone over in lot of angles by the press and almost everyone made Taylor an immediate villain. I am in no way defending the tackle, but it does not make him a man with bad intentions. As a defender you go into a lot of tackles and in today's game the players like Eduardo and Ronaldo are with so much skill and speed that there is a possibility to get a few wrong. For Taylor, he was beaten for speed, and so had to lunge with his studs up which hitting Eduardo on his shin is of course a direct red card. The referee did everything right, first looked at Eduardo and found that he was seriously injured, he called for the medical team and then issued the red card to Taylor. As the Defender himself said, "Eduardo was too quick for me". Arsene Wenger after the match said "That man (Taylor) should not be playing football". A few weeks later Eboue made a horrific tackle, received a red card and Wenger said " It was tackle for self protection". Oh Lord Wenger must have a mouth on both sides of his head, or he must be thinking with his rear end.
Taylor did not mean to break Eduardo's leg, it was a bad bad mistimed tackle. Croatian journalists in England took this to a next level by even following Taylor to his doorstep. I still remember 2 months or so before the 2002 World Cup, Aldo Duscher of Deportivo made a horrific tackle on Beckham (then Man U) which broke the then England Captain's foot in a Champions League fixture. The England Press went on and on about how Duscher being an Argentine did this on purpose because of the animosity between Argentina and England in the World Cup.
After the Taylor incident FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that he should not just get a 3 game ban, but it should go up to "months" of ban on players causing harm to others. The game has been defined in such a way that tackles are bound to fly around. Especially in the Premiership the speed is super high that there are bound to be some bad tackles. Before Blatter comes out with such statements, he should probably study the player's background or stats first. Martin Taylor, if i am correct has received a single red card in his top flight career way back in 1999. I don't see many Center backs who can boast of this kind of a record in Europe. I can understand Wenger going over board, who later indeed retracted his statement on Taylor, but FIFA President should not be the one pushing FA for a longer ban.
I did not want to add the video because as Sky Sports rightly stopped showing the replay, it was a gruesome scene. Let us not go over board here, maybe the FA may be should have considered a 6 match or 2 month ban on Taylor, but are they prepared to do this to all players who come in with such tackles. We see week after week across Europe tackles similar to the one Taylor made, get away with maybe a yellow card, because no severe injury was inflicted. As per the rule book does a referee show a red card each time a player comes into a tackle with the studs up?
What about Ashley Cole's tackle a few weeks back against Arsenal and the actions after that in not turning around to the referee. The attacking players also don't make it easy for the Referees with their play acting to figure out which is a genuine injury and which is not. But as a Referee its not the injury that decides the card, its the tackle.
Eboue who was sent off a few weeks back was once on the receiving end last season when he broke his leg. But he is not new to senseless tackles. Wenger i think should have seen this tackle as self protection as well.
Can some one please tell me the sense behind this tackle? He was going for the ball, but the wrong one...
When i was searching for the actual tackle by Cole, i found a long jump video by Henry. This is just baffling why the referee did not hand the red card to Henry.
Now, OK Henry went for the ball but as a Referee you should be able to look at the entire picture, Henry lost the ball and went right back with both feet up. It is funny to look at but is this not a dangerous tackle and deserve a red card?
I can go on and on and find more such stupid tackles, but the bottom line is no one is here to kill anyone. People make mistakes, let us punish them for their mistakes and move on. Whatever little football i have played, i have played as a defender and we get tackles wrong, any defender would, i know exactly how Matt Taylor would have felt. All our hearts go out to Eduardo and a speedy recovery for him, but how would you judge the skill of Ronaldo, Kaka or Messi if you did not have strong defenders?
9 comments:
Arsene is and has always been a sore loser
How about the tackle of the century roy keane on Alfie haaland the tackle ended haalands career it was premeditated.I am a big fan of keane and i thought that the tackle was disgraceful.
I am not sure i think its the english version of the game that is so physical and they are proud about these tackles cos in almost all the biographies i have read keane,beckham,gerrard they seem to associate this with some kind of glory.
As a friend quoted an English defender whose supposed to have said that "A good tackle is heard and not seen" :(
For sure Spartan, there are numerous malicious tackles being made on a weekly basis. And it is also not just the tackles, Mascherano ran 40 yards charging in at the referee and abuse him and claim he did nothing wrong.
Its there every where, you can search for videos on google of Materazzi, he is one wild defender.
Every one speaks volumes of how Ashley Cole marked Ronaldo superbly for an entire game, and the next game he makes a wrong tackle, he is the villain.
Do you follow the rule book where a hand raised against an opposing player's face is a red card. But Lampard just patted someone and off he goes.
Well being a centre back myself, I do not think I would have got a better post to put my first comment on this blog.
Arsenal as expected may not have had the firepower to win any title but Arsene Wenger to me is the only manager who did his homework right.what he has achieved may not be evident in terms of titles but I am sure nobody on this blog or off it would disagree that Arsenal is a n outfit to reckon with. Defensive errors and at times few rash tackles have cost the team the title but I am sure there are other teams as well who have played rougher football.
Looking back this post may look out of sync with the original post, but I feel few comments here deserve such a retort.. nuthn personal but something in defence of a great football club and a great manager....
A note, from a football lover and not from a biased football club fan... boy -blogs do make defenders look like devils.. sure it made this defender look like one...
Viva La Futbol
I am glad we have a comment finally from my good friend SGA. Well i agree completely with you on Arsenal's achievements this season in terms of fighting till the end in numerous competitions. They have fallen short for sure in lack of team depth. They need another influence in the center back area which Sol Campbell used to give them.
But on the last part of the comment, if you think my post has made Taylor look bad well that was for sure not my intention. For all that was going on, i wanted to come out in support of the lad. May be references to Wenger's comments have made you irate. There is no mention in my post on Wenger's abilities or the quality of football from them this season, I made my point and you made yours and as in football lets move on.
And about Bias, thats what makes clubs right? the die hard fans like Spartan here who is a Liverpool fan and thats whats prompted this comment from him.
yeah yeah nothing personal as for achievements i think Manu Deserves that credit.Its all about winning isnt it the gooners have run out of steam its obvious and any team that plays in a league such as the EPl should have the caliber to last the long season.
Arsenal need to spend money it is high time they did it,free flowing football and all that but its the 90 minutes that matters and not the first 30, they have to learn to hold onto the lead and in circumstances such as this you need experienced players along with he young ones.
As for manager achievements i think Kevin Keegan is the one to look up to ,look at the change in the toons.
Mr Spartan- "silence is golden".... and I am sure time will tell whose views are correct and whose are not..
must also add... we should have more refinement in the way we perceive and interpret every post on this blog- making it look a mature blog that reflects our appreciation for the game... we will leave the battles on the field and the discussions here on this blog...
Look forward to some quality blogging in the seasons to come...
I am sure you would not disagree..
:)
Mr Sga,
Its amazing that you find a different point of view immature,or is that you hold the "maturity" copyright.
Quality blogging is precisely what i believe in and i do not think you are the authority that decides on quality :)
guys we are going off from the original post. Lets drop it here and i am sure we will have more posts to argue on :-)
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