Poll: Raheem Sterling - Was it?

[Beefymcfc]

As requested, please have your say on the possible Sterling dive and if he is another Tom Daley.

You have 2 separate polls but as I cannot split them I have left a blank space. The top 3 are regarding the incident yesterday and the last 3 are your thoughts overall on his diving prowess.

ManCityFans get their vote.

[South Stand Balti]

So, someone ticked the box that says leave blank. Come on, own up.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Minimal contact and becoming a habitual diver. Really hope he knocks it on the head. I have always thought Aguero scoring the title winner was our reward for staying on his feet regularly. He could have easily dived.

[mcfc1632]

Seems like I am with the majority view - really hopes he takes Sergio's approach and also that he man's up

[Sister of fu]

Dive. He needs to cut it out. If Young did that we would all be taking the piss.

[dazby]

There was contact that he accentuated. No dive. A dive is when there isn't contact. There was contact. Enough to knock him but he made more of it. Had he made a bit less of it he may have got the pen.

Would have preferred him to have shot with his left though. He had the space.

[KinkyKinkladze]

Should never have been a pen. There absolutely was contact, but not enough to impede his movement, which is what the law judges.

However, I cannot blame him for diving. He's a kid who has only ever known through media or training that if there's a touch, you go down. How many years have we heard idiotic commentary saying "there's contact and he's every right to go down"? Up there in my list of moronic bugbears with " he's last man, he's got to go".

He's a symptom of a culture of the "contact" belief. Contrasts massively with out and out cheaters like Ashley Young.

So I don't he's wrong to have done it, given the modern culture of this fine contact sport, but the ref absolutely made the right decision.

Plus the daft cunt should've just put his left foot through it.

[Sparklehorse]

He went down anticipating contact that didn't happen...not a premeditated dive but certainly not a penalty..He will learn !!

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Foul and a dive

[Socrates]

So on the second poll, which one was Francis Lee?

[Pretty Boy Lee]

There was contact that he accentuated. No dive. A dive is when there isn't contact. There was contact.

Urghhhhh.

If I tickle you I've made contact, could you the accentuate the tickle for a penalty?

This is such an annoying blue tinted stance everyone is taking. A dive to me is when contact doesn't force you to the ground, you force yourself.

[Tokyo Blue]

I wouldn't have given the penalty, and I am a tin-foil-hat-wearing loon. I don't think it was a dive on this occasion as sometimes it doesn't take that much to make you go down if you're off-balance etc, but there just wasn't enough for a penalty - or a free-kick in any other area of the pitch. It has to be an obvious attempt to win the ball by illegal means for a foul to be given and to me it wasn't. The bloke just stood there and they made contact. That to me is not a foul.

Sterling does go to ground far too easily in my opinion and it needs stamping out sharpish. Thing is he was getting these at his previous club. He should have worked out by now that he is playing for the team that get the fewest free-kicks in the division and adjusted his game accordingly.

He should of course have shot on his left foot instead of cutting inside but this is irrelevant to the non-penalty discussion. I am sure his team-mates and/or the coaching staff will be informing him of this at some stage.

[zuricity]

So is this one of Sterling's qualities as a footballer being discussed?

Spending an awful lot if time discussing it.

His left foot is for standing on. For the money paid out, he should be more than capable of shooting with his left foot.

He cuts back across the defender instead of going on and shooting with his left foot.

No need to throw himself to the floor either.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Foul and a dive

This. And there's no option above for it.

To those saying no foul or minimal contact, he was tripped you loons. Not enough to make him go down the way he did but enough to make him stumble and lose possession.

[Mase]

Thank you Beefy for doing such a wonderful poll and I hope there are more to come in the future. This is one of the reasons mancityfans.net is so brilliant and why I keep coming back.

[Alioune DVToure]

I don't think it was a foul or a dive. There was contact, but the replay suggests that he was probably trying to pull his leg out of Sterling's way, and that Sterling put his foot on top of the centre-half's when trying to ground it, thus losing his balance.

None of this was apparent at full speed, but my instinct was that it wasn't a penalty. The ref probably thought something similar. It just didn't feel right.

[mr_nool]

I don't think it was a foul or a dive. There was contact, but the replay suggests that he was probably trying to pull his leg out of Sterling's way, and that Sterling put his foot on top of the centre-half's when trying to ground it, thus losing his balance.

None of this was apparent at full speed, but my instinct was that it wasn't a penalty. The ref probably thought something similar. It just didn't feel right.

Indeed, Sterling stepped on the Villa defender, not the other way around.

[craigmcfc]

There was contact that he accentuated. No dive. A dive is when there isn't contact. There was contact.

Urghhhhh.

If I tickle you I've made contact, could you the accentuate the tickle for a penalty?

This is such an annoying blue tinted stance everyone is taking. A dive to me is when contact doesn't force you to the ground, you force yourself.

Exactly Lee. There's contact when Ashley Young deliberately hangs out a leg to make contact with the defenders leg, but that doesn't make it a penalty. It's a dive, pure and simple and as someone else pointed out, he stood on the defenders foot. Last time I checked that doesn't normally lead to a swan dive.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

I don't think it was a foul or a dive. There was contact, but the replay suggests that he was probably trying to pull his leg out of Sterling's way, and that Sterling put his foot on top of the centre-half's when trying to ground it, thus losing his balance.

None of this was apparent at full speed, but my instinct was that it wasn't a penalty. The ref probably thought something similar. It just didn't feel right.

It doesn't suggest any such thing, you're all mad.

[Nigels Tackle]

who cares?
he's top of two leagues!