Should he stay or should he fall?

[nottsblue]

Plenty of debate on MotD about whether a forward should go to ground when they are
impeded. Sterling can't do right for wrong at the moment. When he goes down under a challenge it's all about he should have stayed on his feet, he should have got his shot away or worse still that he gets a reputation amongst officials for a propensity to possibly dive. Then he won't get any decisions. Not unlike Suarez at the dippers or Bale at Spurs. Both had reputations as divers, which merited or not, stopped them from getting clear cut decisions later on.

Then when Sterling stays on his feet after being fouled, he doesn't get the decision. Gullitt was very vocal and insistent that a forward should go down as it makes the decision much easier to give. Shearer too said that although he doesn't want to advocate players going to ground it is probably a necessary evil.

As we know the standard of refereeing across the board is not standardised or consistent. And we are not going to video replays any time soon. So the question is, do we want to see our boys making the most of these decisions given that it could have a detrimental effect in the longer term?

My take is I'd prefer to see our boys play fair and when we have had poor decisions like yesterday go against us, then the club whether that is the manager or the player himself make a big noise about the injustice. Bacon at the rags never let things like that lie, or Mourinho earlier on this season for that matter. And what do you know, the rags have been getting major decisions go their way for a couple of months now

[Foreverinbluedreams]

If he'd gone down he probably wouldn't have got the decision anyway and more than likely would now be getting vilified by the press and more than likely City fans for diving and costing us the win because of it.

On your last paragraph, I agree that since Mourinho complained about decisions things have gone in their favour. I'll also add that since the uproar about the number of penalties we get following the one KDB got against Swansea we've been getting the shit end of the stick. I'm convinced, like I said elsewhere, that it is media driven but you need to have the media onside to use this in your favour, we don't, we have the opposite.

[Moonchesteri]

I'm glad he stayed on his feet.

[Spurge]

I'm glad he stayed on his feet.

so am I in essence but is that ok if it means the ref makes a wrong decision because of it?

I think the referees committee or whatever they are called, need to urgently review this and then make a statement with a clear directive so that these sort of instances will result in a penalty kick being awarded.

The officials play a major part in keeping the game clean and can further eradicate any confusion where players go to ground to get a penalty, they've already taken some steps in this by booking players who dive and award pens for shirt pulling - now is the time to take another step forwards. With this directive in place it will surely better help them differentiate between a player who blatantly dives deserving a yellow when there is no contact and those who go to ground following contact to underline the fact they've been fouled, meaning they make the right decisions more often.

[City64]

You know what ........ Sterlings honesty not going down yesterday just maybe has swung the balance in our favour with how refs aren't giving us decisions whatsoever this season . Its on every media angle and at fucking last most people are asking why wasn't it given and how come it happens to us most games , It has took long enough btw but just maybe maybe one bit of honesty from Sterling has caught the footballing publics imagination and is now the "talk of the town" .

[zuricity]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

[patrickblue]

If he'd gone down he probably wouldn't have got the decision anyway and more than likely would now be getting vilified by the press and more than likely City fans for diving and costing us the win because of it.

On your last paragraph, I agree that since Mourinho complained about decisions things have gone in their favour. I'll also add that since the uproar about the number of penalties we get following the one KDB got against Swansea we've been getting the shit end of the stick. I'm convinced, like I said elsewhere, that it is media driven but you need to have the media onside to use this in your favour, we don't, we have the opposite.

Plus, had he gone down he probably would have been carded.

[nottsblue]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

[sidSmith]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

And I said yesterday that he seemed a reasonable guy. His own player said he got away with one, or words to that effect. Clearly I was wrong and he's another blinkered manager.

[Moonchesteri]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

And I said yesterday that he seemed a reasonable guy. His own player said he got away with one, or words to that effect. Clearly I was wrong and he's another blinkered manager.

Aye. Lost a bit of respect for Pocchs there but even with this he is one of the most likeable managers out there

[Mikhail Chigorin]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

And I said yesterday that he seemed a reasonable guy. His own player said he got away with one, or words to that effect. Clearly I was wrong and he's another blinkered manager.

Aye. Lost a bit of respect for Pocchs there but even with this he is one of the most likeable managers out there

Compared to the likes of Mourinho, Whinger, Sparky Spews, Pulis and has-beens such as FergusScum, Warnock, 'Arry, Pardoe and Brendan Bodgers, he's a virtual paragon of likeability, even though that isn't saying much.

Added to which, I don't mind Conte, to be fair.

[Dameerto]

He stayed on his feet and tried to get his shot away - which was enough to give the officials the excuse of 'play on'. Guaranteed penalty if he'd fallen to the floor or been unable to make contact with the ball in my opinion. I'm glad he stayed up because he was putting the team first, I'm not going to fault him for failing to play act.

[iwasthere2012]

He stayed on his feet and tried to get his shot away - which was enough to give the officials the excuse of 'play on'. Guaranteed penalty if he'd fallen to the floor or been unable to make contact with the ball in my opinion. I'm glad he stayed up because he was putting the team first, I'm not going to fault him for failing to play act.

Same here. You should always try to finish it. You don't know what a ref is going to do. Play to the whistle we tell the kids.

What I do blame him for is not being able to finish.
With or without the shove that was a left footed shot low into bottom right. He takes too long because he's one footed.

[nottsblue]

He stayed on his feet and tried to get his shot away - which was enough to give the officials the excuse of 'play on'. Guaranteed penalty if he'd fallen to the floor or been unable to make contact with the ball in my opinion. I'm glad he stayed up because he was putting the team first, I'm not going to fault him for failing to play act.

Same here. You should always try to finish it. You don't know what a ref is going to do. Play to the whistle we tell the kids.

What I do blame him for is not being able to finish.
With or without the shove that was a left footed shot low into bottom right. He takes too long because he's one footed.

Not being two footed enough to be able to shoot or pass with either foot is disgraceful for a professional footballer in my eyes. Can appreciate players can favour a foot but they should be able to use either as the match situation dictates

[patrickblue]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

And I said yesterday that he seemed a reasonable guy. His own player said he got away with one, or words to that effect. Clearly I was wrong and he's another blinkered manager.

Aye. Lost a bit of respect for Pocchs there but even with this he is one of the most likeable managers out there

To be fair, I don't think he reasonably could have said anything else.
He was sticking up for his team and player, everyone knew that when he said it.
It was bollox, but the right thing for him to say.

[nottsblue]

And that idiot Pocahontas had the balls in his MOTD interview to claim that Sane handled the ball. !

And he even said he didn't think the push on Sterling warranted a penalty! I mean, there's sticking up for your team and then there is rank stupidity which makes him look like an idiot

And I said yesterday that he seemed a reasonable guy. His own player said he got away with one, or words to that effect. Clearly I was wrong and he's another blinkered manager.

Aye. Lost a bit of respect for Pocchs there but even with this he is one of the most likeable managers out there

To be fair, I don't think he reasonably could have said anything else.
He was sticking up for his team and player, everyone knew that when he said it.
It was bollox, but the right thing for him to say.

He could've said, "we got lucky there, but do you know what, in such and such a game we were on the end of a terrible decision. These things sadly continue to blight this great game and I long for the day the referees are allowed to get help on these matters"

[london blue 2]

Am I the only one who thinks we probably wouldn't have been awarded anything had raheem gone down. Seen it waved on time and time again so it's certainly not a dead cert.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

He stayed on his feet and tried to get his shot away - which was enough to give the officials the excuse of 'play on'. Guaranteed penalty if he'd fallen to the floor or been unable to make contact with the ball in my opinion. I'm glad he stayed up because he was putting the team first, I'm not going to fault him for failing to play act.

Same here. You should always try to finish it. You don't know what a ref is going to do. Play to the whistle we tell the kids.

What I do blame him for is not being able to finish.
With or without the shove that was a left footed shot low into bottom right. He takes too long because he's one footed.

But then you see him hit a sweet strike against Arsenal for the winner with his left. It's a confidence thing with him more than anything imo. It looks like he has serious competition for his place now so he needs get his act together in front of goal.

[patrickblue]

Am I the only one who thinks we probably wouldn't have been awarded anything had raheem gone down. Seen it waved on time and time again so it's certainly not a dead cert.

As I mentioned before, had he gone down I think the only thing we'd have received is a booking.

[Mase]

I'm getting sick of the stick Raheem gets on here. For fuck sake the kid is getting shit from everyone else why should we join in?

Absolutely knocks me sick. I was skiing last Feb when we played in the cup final against Liverpool and there were people sat in the bar that were in (don't think they were Liverpool fans they were just anti-City) giving him shit to the point that I stood up walked over to their table and offered any one of them out if they wanted it. Obviously none of them did because they were all mouth but I would happily have taken a beating and got a few good digs in to some bellends for giving one of ours shit.

It's fuckin pathetic. He's what 21-22? Give the guy a break. He's only been here a season. Some of you gave the Goat shit for his first year then hung off his dick the rest of the time.

Give the kid a chance!!