The Kraken

Its actually quite amusing seeing the increased determination on here to avoid saying that one of our players had an exaggerated reaction to win a penalty. As if it damns us as a club and is a bitter blow that we'll never recover from if we admit it. He dived, plain and simple. It'll be forgotten about by the next game. Gareth Bale has been booked for it 5 times this season, I don't think we're in the category just yet. It'll be interesting to see what happens on here the next time we have a dodgy penalty given against us because of simulation. If this thread is anything to go by I imagine that there will a lot of sympathy for the diving striker and the fact that there doesn't have to be contact made for him to collapse to the floor like he's been shot.

Its the Pompey way. Typified by Micah Hall now being heralded as an investigative genius, yet a couple of years ago when he was in his infancy of digging dirt on Chainrai most of the fanbase simply didn't want to know. Their over-inflated wage bill is a typical point in case. How many times did we point out that they were paying over the odds for players? We pointed out that they were working to Chainrai's original wage bill predictions, and not his revised figure nor the PDT's lower figure. Unsustainable wages. For pointing this out we were told we were wrong, told we were just bitter deluded scummahs, what did we know? Neil Allen consistently stated that Pompey's wage bill was one of the lowest in the division; he wouldn't be wrong, would he? And so it turns out that we were right after all. There WERE some players earning more than £4K per week (more than double the L1 average). There WERE players that had come to Pompey instead of other championship/L1 clubs because of the high wages on offer. And those wages being paid WERE unsustainable, the club couldn't afford that level of expenditure. There's only so much sympathy you can have for a basket case outfit that just refuses to listen to external logic, and continues on their own mini crusade to damnation. They didn't listen, they didn't want to listen, but now they want to appear wise after the fact.

No, I get what you're saying. I just don't think there's any need to hit the deck in the way he did just to avoid the challenge. And absolutely not with the left leg. And I think you must have looked at the wrong post. #180 is this one.

Fair enough if that's what you think; that he was so off balance from moving his right leg that his left leg gave way too and he therefore fell to the floor. I can't agree with that, certainly not from reviewing the gif at post 180, but fair play if that's your contention.

No-one is saying he is a diver. That is a label that indicates he does it all the time. Gareth Bale for instance is gaining a reputation as a diver; Rodriguez certainly isn't that. But in this instance, IMO his natural reaction to avoiding a defender's challenge was not to hurdle it, or stumble round it. It was to lift both feet off the air and fall to the ground. He dived out of the way. He could also IMO have avoided the challenge and remained on his feet; there was no need to fall to the ground to avoid the challenge.

Entirely true, well said. Besides, as flat a performance as it was in the second half yesterday (first half we dominated them) there were still enough positives to take from the game overall. Boruc's performance, Clyne back and a step towards fitness (although he was well below par, it will have massively helped his recuperation), Shaw fantastic again, Puncheon again lively and perhaps Rodriguez's best game for us in terms of overall contribution to the team and clever running. Not a great performance by any means, and definitely a lucky win. But a win nonetheless and with plenty of other things to build upon.

Blimey. Its a sad indictment of a £12M player that he can only perform with better players around him.

A tumble, yes. Would your first instinct be to lose all power in both legs and make zero attempt to stumble on, and instead throw yourself straight to the floor? Unlikely. Rodriguez may very well have been trying to avoid the challenge from the defender. I don't think too many people would disagree with that. But in trying to evade it, did he really truly lose power in both legs and therefore was so off balance that he had no other option to just flop straight to the floor? Could he not have at least put his left leg to the floor and tried to stumble on? That's the question, and that's why its being classified by some as a dive even if others are suggesting there were mitigating circumstances for it.

Sadly now Roger I'm beginning to see through your RL hero worship WUMming. At first I thought it was comically genuine, but alas it seems not after all. What a shame.

Very well said.

Fair enough. Can't say I agree but fair play if that's your opinion. I personally see no reason to disagree with the MOTD analysis that it was a clear dive. Not that it matters any more, 3 points won is great, the peno award only sours it a tiny touch for me.

Had it happened at the other end, do you feel you would have been so understanding of the forward's plight and agreed it was a nailed on pen? As I've said earlier, I'd have been livid if that had been given against Saints.

Connolly has only just signed a 1 month contract so give it 3 weeks or so and we'll see if he gets to renew.

Arse, apologies! Nicked it from another site without checking.

So you think he was so off balance that he had no chance in trying to plant either foot on the turf? Fair enough.

According to this Astori has said no to Napoli and is on his way here. http://www.napolibook.it/calciomercato-napoli-astori-lascia-litalia-e-va-al-southampton/20573/

Indeed, there's maybe an element of that. I'm just interested to see if people think that, after initially pulling his leg away, Rodriguez really was so off balance that he was unable to plant either foot onto the turf to try to stay on his feet.

I'm not talking about in the context of whether it was a penalty or not. I'm just wondering if scotty (and others) think that the action of Rodriguez moving his right leg to avoid contact was enough to make him lose all balance and send him to the floor without being able to take one more step with either foot.

Looking at the gif above of it (post #180) how would you answer these two questions: 1) After JRod has pulled his leg away, do you think he could have placed it on the ground rather than continuing to move it backwards and then falling over forwards? 2) Do you think the movement of pulling his right leg away also caused his left leg to lose all power in it and therefore be unable to make a step with that one?

Only 2 votes for Clyne on here for MOTM. Quality player, but not a good game from him today.

Absolutely. First replay of the dive on MOTD was a good angle, Guzan clearly got the ball first, no question. Puncheon then fell over him.

:lol:

Agreed. I can accept the argument that he saw the challenge coming and pulled his leg away as a consequence. I can't accept that moving his right leg away caused him to hit the ground in the manner that he did; from the gif above you can clearly see that both legs totally give way and he throws himself to the ground. If he genuinely pulled away his leg and lost balance, his left leg would have at least tried to stumble on. He didn't, he chose to fall to the ground and its therefore a dive. No mention of the pen being given for the first challenge on MOTD.

If the roles were reversed and Villa had been given a penalty for something like that and won the match as a consequence, I would be livid.

There's some truth to that, though the save was still very instinctive. I was mroe impressed with his handling when under pressure, a few head downs and knocks across goal were handled safely and easily by Boruc, if he'd have spilled anything just slightly it was a definite goal. Long way to go yet, he still doesn't inspire me with confidence and I'd prefer a better keeper to come in to replace him. He'll get a lot of practise in the next 3 games so we'll see what he's up to.