Murphy Pulls No Punches

[Fish111]

He actually names the managers he thinks are responsible, surely bringing the game into disrepute and a charge should follow? And the scouser actually talks about logic and intelligence, oh the irony.

Danny Murphy blasts 'brainless' tacklers and accuses managers of inciting their players:

Danny Murphy, the Fulham captain, has launched a fierce attack on some of the “brainless” tackling in the Premier League and accused Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce and Mick McCarthy of effectively inciting their own players.

The pace some of the players are going into tackles at is ridiculous,” said Murphy. “There are no brains in the players doing that. I don’t believe they are going out to break the legs of their opponents but there’s no logic or intelligence in what they are doing.

“If you’re going in at a certain pace and don’t get it right you are going to hurt someone. Players need to be more intelligent, especially the ones who are doing it repeatedly. They are culpable in that.”

Murphy believes that the influence of the club managers is being underestimated in the current debate and he particularly highlighted the style of Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“You get managers sending teams out to stop other sides from playing, which is happening more and more,” he said. “Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves — you can say they’re doing what they can to win the game — but the fact is that the managers are sending the players out so pumped up that inevitably there are going to be problems.

“The thing I think people miss is that it’s the managers who dictate what the players do and how they behave. If you have a manager in control of his team, who doesn’t allow these things to go on you have a more disciplined team.

“Fulham under Roy Hodgson were top of the Fair Play League because he wouldn’t accept talking back to the referee or stupid tackles. You can look at the players and blame them. But every team has a captain and a manager who is in charge.”

Fulham have lost Bobby Zamora this season to a broken leg following a challenge by Wolves’ Karl Henry, while Moussa Dembele has not played following a widely condemned tackle from Stoke’s Andy Wilkinson.

Fulham were also unhappy with a challenge from Blackburn’s El-Hadj Diouf on Mark Schwarzer earlier this season. Murphy, who speaking at the Leaders in Football conference, believes that there is now a strong argument for retrospective disciplinary action.

“Referees can’t get it always right,” he said. “If there was a board of ex-professionals, who know what was a bad tackle or whether a decision was right or wrong then the people who deserve to get punished will get punished.”

Dr Michel D’Hooghe, a member of Fifa’s executive committee, also offered his support to Holland coach Bert van Marwijk for dropping Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong over his leg-breaking tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa.

“I have made a compilation of brutality over the last two or three years in the main competitions in the world and it is amazing,” said D’Hooghe.

“On the one hand I am happy that some leaders take responsibility – on the other hand I am very sad that he [Van Marwijk] did not do the same at the final of the World Cup.”

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

If you can't stand the heat then get THE FUCK out of the kitchen. Mind you, he is being paid hefty wages to work as a cook.

[Ted Hughes]

I can't accept that challenges are any worse all of a sudden. Sure, there are some dreadful, indefensible ones, as there always have been but I don't believe that the present Dutch team for instance, tackles any worse than the celebrated one which had Cruyff in it or the celebrated Argentina team which beat it.

ESPN once showed a 70's game between rags & Liverpool & every single challenge was heavier than DeJong's. It was great but wouldn't be allowed today.

A question I would ask is whether some of the players these days, have been so protected in their careers that they have no idea what to do when a hard challenge comes in & no interest in making a challenge for a 50/50 themselves, so get caught. If Summerbee or Best had just stood around with both feet planted, like Ben Arfa did, when players like Ron Harris or Tony Book came flying in, they would have been out of the game before they started. If we change the game to suit players who can't ride a hard, fair, challenge, it devalues the game imo, it's their job to learn how to ride it. A foul is a foul; a hard tackle isn't.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I can't accept that challenges are any worse all of a sudden. Sure, there are some dreadful, indefensible ones, as there always have been but I don't believe that the present Dutch team for instance, tackles any worse than the celebrated one which had Cruyff in it or the celebrated Argentina team which beat it.

ESPN once showed a 70's game between rags & Liverpool & every single challenge was heavier than DeJong's. It was great but wouldn't be allowed today.

A question I would ask is whether some of the players these days, have been so protected in their careers that they have no idea what to do when a hard challenge comes in & no interest in making a challenge for a 50/50 themselves, so get caught. If Summerbee or Best had just stood around with both feet planted, like Ben Arfa did, when players like Ron Harris or Tony Book came flying in, they would have been out of the game before they started. If we change the game to suit players who can't ride a hard, fair, challenge, it devalues the game imo, it's their job to learn how to ride it. A foul is a foul; a hard tackle isn't.

Spot on. It really is refreshing to watch some games from 80's in ESPN Classics. De Jong's tackle was pretty much standard back then and if you couldn't tackle like that you wouldn't have even made it.

[Blue Since 76]

Fulham's position in fair play league - 9th. For 10 points, do you think Blackburn are higher or lower?

Blackburn has had this reputation for a while. Any ideas who used to be their manager? Where's he these days?