Jurgen Klopp doesn’t believe diving is too big a problem in football, but does believe there should be more punishment given to tactical fouls.
This is following the news that the FA could bring in retrospective punishment for simulation.
Instead, Liverpool’s manager thinks snide, tactical fouling – such as the shirt pull by Ander Herrera on Roberto Firmino in the Premier League last time out – is more of an issue…
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With barely minutes on the clock, the Manchester United midfielder unashamedly grabbed hold of our Brazilian who was dribbling towards goal, which Klopp has described as a ‘lazy’ action.
“So if the referee cannot see the diver then they can look at the cameras and ban him afterwards?” the Reds boss told the Echo. “That is an interesting interpretation of the rules because then we can start thinking about everything.
“If we could do things in retrospective with all decision (gives thumbs up). Fine. But only diving?
“I don’t think that makes too much sense. In this moment especially it is not my biggest problem.
“I really think that diving is not a real (issue). I can’t imagine when I last saw a real dive but if they want to do it I have no problem with it.
“I actually think we could think about a few more things.”
“I think there are a lot of things we could think about in football,” he said. “We could think about rules – and in my opinion, the tactical fouls.
“The tactical foul of holding a midfielder – and not because of Herrera, I mean in general – is an offensive action and should, for me, be an immediate yellow card. Only because it is lazy.
“If you can, try to run to get it, then if not it is a situation.
“Tactical fouls for me are not hard (physical) but they disturb the fluency of the game.
“For me it is always yellow but nobody sees it like this.”
Unlike Klopp, we think punishing diving retrospectively is a good idea, but would also back the boss’s suggestion to increase punishment for tactical fouling, too.
We have most of the ball during matches and are usually up against strong, defensive tactics – so this could only end up working in our favour.