If you know that I’m a Man United fan this might come as a surprise, but I’m actually in the minority who actually doesn’t have a problem with Luis Suarez, as a player. In fact, I actually quite like most of the things he does on the pitch.
Sure, he’s so horse-faced that he’d be a decent each-way shout in the National, and he has a bit of the racist about him, but you can’t argue with his footballing ability. I’d have him in my side any day of the week.
He has this attitude where he thinks he’s never beaten until the very last whistle, and until that point he gives all he’s got for his side because he hates losing. Obviously nobody likes to lose, but some people are driven by a fear of failure so huge that they’ll do anything and go to the greatest lengths to try and win. And I think this is the part of Suarez that gets people riled.
The incident the other week where he basically juggled the ball before poking it into an empty Mansfield goal is a prime example. It was an instinctive reaction to jab out his hand, and the most natural thing to do after that was to put the ball into the net. Yet Suarez was condemned from all corners for not stopping the game and owning up to the handball. Some even said he taunted Mansfield by celebrating his goal in the same way as he celebrates every other goal; kissing a tattoo of his daughter’s name on his wrist. It’s blatant ignorant journalism like that which really pisses me off. I’m not a Liverpool fan by any means, quite the opposite, but when the media create total rubbish like that it winds me up.
What the pundits, fans and media need to realise is that Suarez is not the one with the whistle in his hand. He followed the rules of the game by playing to the whistle, and if the referee and linesman have such poor eyesight to miss a handball as clear-cut as that then they shouldn’t have been appointed to the game.
No player in the world would ever stop play and say “sorry chaps, cocked up back there, your free-kick”. It doesn’t happen. You want Suarez to own up and cancel out the goal, so by the same token do you also expect a defender to alert the referee if the ball touches his hand in the box, and give the other side a penalty? Exactly.
I’m going to be a bit controversial now, but you could even say that, technically, the most famous handballed goal ever was not Diego Maradona’s fault, but the officials’. Watching that goal, the handball is obvious, but again it was the officials who gave it. If doing that gives you the lead in a World Cup quarter-final then what would you do? Everyone’s an angel until they’re in the situation themselves. I’d have done the same as Suarez and Maradona if it’d been me.
Another complaint made against Suarez is that he goes to ground a lot. Again it may be controversial, but I don’t really have an issue with players diving. For me diving is a result of the softening of the game over the last 20 years. Players know that referees will give them free-kicks for the slightest contact nowadays, especially when they’re running at speed, so they try to use that fact to their advantage. This is just another example of players trying to win, trying to gain an advantage for their side. Again, it’s the referee who ultimately gives the decision.
I can sort of understand why people want to stamp it out, but there’s no way you can give retrospective red cards for diving, or ban players to try and deter them from diving. Imagine if someone had dived to win a penalty, the ref had given it, and that goal had been the difference between a side getting relegated or staying up. As well as retrospectively banning the player do you also cancel the goal that the penalty resulted in? And then reinstate the relegated team to the higher division? It would be way too complicated to police.
I think people get the hump with diving until it benefits them directly. Ask yourself this: If (and it’s a BIG if) Wayne Rooney won a penalty in a World Cup final which presented England with the winning goal, would you fold your arms and say “nope, I’m not having that, give the trophy back”? Not a chance (unless you aren’t English). People only get so aggy about diving and so called “cheating” until it suits them.
I dislike Suarez as a man, and because he plays for Liverpool, but to go back to my earlier comment I’d have him in my side any day. The reasons why a lot of people hate him as a player are the reasons why I quite like him as a player. He has a burning desire to be the best, to win, and he’ll do what he needs to do to achieve that. Plus, he scored what is one of my favourite goals of recent seasons when he equalised against Newcastle in November last year.