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?
