If Atletico Madrid ever played with such sh*thouse tactics the English football media would be up in arms.
But led by an English manager in Eddie Howe, Newcastle’s time-wasting and feigning injury put Diego Simeone’s men to shame.
On 11 occasions (I counted) in the second-half, a Newcastle player hit the floor with a fake injury. Some pundits have praised them for savviness. Savviness is maintaining possession, keeping men behind the ball or dribbling the ball into the corner. Pretending you’re injured so the game stops isn’t clever, it’s cheating.
And it’s worse cheating than diving, because at least that requires a level of skill and situational awareness. Anyone can sit on the floor during another team’s attack.
Let’s have it right, Newcastle got exactly what they deserved last night when Fabio Carvalho struck in the 98th minute. Only five minutes of injury time was added on, but Nick Pope stayed down for three minutes once 90 struck.
Well done Andre Marriner. Other refs would have blown up after 95 minutes but at least the referee saw what was happening.
In truth, the initial five minutes was nowhere near long enough, given the ball had been in play for about 15 minutes after we equalised in the 61st minute.
Newcastle fans are claiming they were robbed. They were robbed of nothing. They’ve spent £230m net since their takeover by Saudi Arabia, the country whose flag makes up their away kit – and have lots of very good players. The fact Alexander Isak looks an exceptional signing doesn’t change the fact almost every Newcastle player faked an injury during a match people had spent money to watch. Why is that ok…?
Philippe Auclair says it better than I could.
Outrageous time-wasting is becoming more common, especially at Anfield. And it’s not just to ‘waste time,’ but to disrupt the rhythm of the game.
When Pope went down for two minutes in the second minute of the game, he killed the initial buzz and flattened the crowd. It was planned. Howe knew exactly what was going on, despite his post-match lies.
It’s not just a Liverpool thing, either. Leeds manager Jesse Marsch spoke about Everton’s tactics midweek.
So what should football do about it? Firstly, refs should let players play on when it’s cramp. They do it in rugby, unless it’s a head injury. Of course, there’s then the possibility of players faking head injuries, but that’s probably harder to do.
If this doesn’t work, there should be some kind of trial including a stop-start clock. In an average game, the ball is in play for about 60 of the 90 minutes. So, two 30 minute halves with the clock stopping every time the ball goes out of play. It’s something that should be trialled over a summer, maybe, although in friendlies, nobody would time-waste so it would be a mammoth change and something that would affect TV companies as halves would last different lengths of time.
We got the 2-1 win, but unless something changes, it’ll happen every time a game is tight this season.