The Dark arts, gamesmanship, and the winning mentality.

They way Chelsea are and the ethos that comes with them is a hard nut to crack no matter what you do ,as someone else said its a trait of all there players its instilled early doors and worst of all its given a free hand by all the media and referee`s alike, the latter being the biggest problem how many times did the ref point to his watch acknowledging time wasting and still added f**k all on.
I noticed Drogba throwing the ball away,  any other time they warm up at the other end hes been told to go down there and cause mischief seeing if our kids will bite,
 if Can had got into a bit of verbals when he threw the ball away , it could all have kicked off and thats another point intimidating our younger players,if nothing else they should have learned a bit about themselves also about what makes these so called world class players tick.
Now I've got a lot of time for Hazzard very hard guy to mark very nippy yet hes down at the slightest touch milking it ,Oscar ,Ramieres ,the same week in week out its like they've set the standard for whats acceptable for a foul for Chelsea you put a red shirt on and you get f**k all for the same offence, Louie was  the prime example thumped left right and centre no foul given or indeed penalty slated by all and sundry  the slow mo then  shows he has been fouled and the pundits have made a complete James of it along with the referee and we are left with the hole in the doughnut ,doesn't do LFC any good come the end of the season points make prizes how many of those are lost to referee`s f**king up Raheems onside goal at City last season a starter for 10 ,does my box in,we are to quiet  IMO we want to shout and bawl a hell of a lot more Terry and Maureen are primed ready to jump on the slightest thing we moan instead of getting in the refs  faces ,if its not Terry its Fabricas not him Hazzard ,not him Cahill they all have a pop we have Stevie and Jordan and Skirtel ,I wish Sakho was in there hes a big lad know what I mean very handy,your fighting tooth a nail with these bas**rds on every call you better believe it
I suppose it could come with age John Obe arguing a call from a ref or big Ivanovic arguing his case is  listened to its rattled the ref cause theres about 4 round him , Costa goes through Can he moans on his own no back up refs not taking it from a young boy even although hes right and Can gets the "I'm the referee line",
I'm still fuming now that these tw*ts went  through  ,hopefully lessons will have been  learnt last night,cant wait for our next encounter.


YNWA

I have always opposed interrogation of the match officials. Has always been the case with teams managed by Mourinho. He simply has little time for sportsmanship - it's win at whatever cost, and that's why he's as successful a manager as he is. What was Maureen doing Tuesday evening? Talking to the match official in the tunnel at half time, talking to the fourth official all throughout the match. You'll never see Brendan do that, but then that's what I'd expect from a young up and coming manager who has it all to learn. By that, I'd expect him to be the role model for our players and you can see the honesty in their game. Brendan does not harass the match officials, so our players will inevitably follow suit.

The old spark and mourinho, two peas in a pod for this sh*te.

What exactly is the reason why the FA can't bring in a ruling concerning officials to limit the harassment they get off the pitch?

Apart from their ineptitude of course.

Its such a pity that the FA cant order matches to replayed due to missed incidents like costa. If he had been sent off then (which is what the violent conduct charge amounts to) then the course of the match could have changed...

It will never happen ... but imagine if this video review panel actually watched the game live, and were able to come to decisions at say half and full time ....

Its such a pity that the FA cant order matches to replayed due to missed incidents like costa. If he had been sent off then (which is what the violent conduct charge amounts to) then the course of the match could have changed...

It will never happen ... but imagine if this video review panel actually watched the game live, and were able to come to decisions at say half and full time ....

To be fair we had Suarez bite Ivanovic in the 2-2 at Anfield, nothing happened til after the match and Luis then went on to score the equalizer in the 90-odd minute...

Im just glad Costa got charged as our player was charged...thats all I wanted post match!

We must be careful not to look like hypocrites... Suarez was a little f**ker, but he was our little f**ker

Guarantee Mourinho is telling Hazard and Oscar and Costa in training that if they feel the slightest contact they need to go down.

Do I want Brendan coaching like that, no I don't, but I do think he needs to let guys like Coutinho and Sterling, etc... know that if they are getting bulllied...pushed, tugged, kicked, etc... they need to start going down to make light of it. What they can't do is turn into a Hazard where they are going down everytime they are remotely brushed against.

As for replay. I don't see why instant replay can't be used in a quick manner to determine if something heinous has been done. The amount of time a player is usually on the ground should be more than enough for a replay official to take a look and determine if there was intent, malice, etc.....

You don't want to be reviewing every single foul, but I'd think intelligent people could be trusted to determine when it was acceptable (like when the referee doesn't see it).

The other idea would be to add more officials on the sideline, add another referee to the game (one for each half for instance) and to give coaches a "challenge" where they can have an incident looked at. Give them one per game so that the game isn't slowed down.

In the NFL, coaches get 2 challenges to use during the game if they think a call was missed. There are guidlines on what can be challenged and it works pretty well.

The old spark and mourinho, two peas in a pod for this sh*te.

What exactly is the reason why the FA can't bring in a ruling concerning officials to limit the harassment they get off the pitch?

Apart from their ineptitude of course.

I meant soak. Bloody phone.

No one wants us to turn in to a nasty team of fouling, cheating bas**rds but until officials wake up to it, we either allow ourselves to continue being taken advantage of or we start playing teams like Chelsea at their own game and play it better than they do. I don't see any dishonour in giving a cheat a taste of their own medicine.

The OP makes some very good points.

But we have to ask ourselves - did we really fall in love with a club - and a game - only for it to be seen as essential for success to be nasty?

That's not the game, or the club, we fell in love with.

No one wants us to turn in to a nasty team of fouling, cheating bas**rds but until officials wake up to it, we either allow ourselves to continue being taken advantage of or we start playing teams like Chelsea at their own game and play it better than they do. I don't see any dishonour in giving a cheat a taste of their own medicine.

And this sums it up quite nicely. We don't have to turn into a team of absolute cheating bas**rds like the plastics, but play them at their own game, when it's needed.

Put in a call to Hogwarts for a Defense Against The Dark Arts tutor for the lads

Lord Voldemort our next signing then , fight fire with fire i say .

Sturridge gets it. First tackle on him today and he went down like he'd been shot. Probably while he was at Chelsea where he learnt it. Sterling tries it but doesn't do it right. Hazard (the little f*****) is genius at it, gets a foul every time. I don't want Hazard like diving, but I DO want Coutinho in particular to actually go down when he's fouled.

Sturridge gets it. First tackle on him today and he went down like he'd been shot. Probably while he was at Chelsea where he learnt it. Sterling tries it but doesn't do it right. Hazard (the little f*****) is genius at it, gets a foul every time. I don't want Hazard like diving, but I DO want Coutinho in particular to actually go down when he's fouled.

Coutinho refuses to dive , he's a tough guy.

Win by any means possible. The role of honour only states who won what, not how they won it.
Take two of UTDs Fa cup wins, Spurs had a ball pulled back from behind the goal line by the keeper, but the ref didn't see it. The match ended 0-0, Utd won the replay, and went on to win the cup. In Kenny's first game back in charge, Berbatov dived and won a penalty, Utd won 1-0, and went on to cup again.

Cheaters do prosper, and as long as people can get away with it they will do it. If it wins us the game, then looking for free-kicks and penalties has to be done, we just needcti get better at it.

How about trash talking? Is it a dark art? First heard it in the NBA.

How about trash talking? Is it a dark art? First heard it in the NBA.

I would have proposed 'sledging' but there's just too many languages within the EPL and I suspect many remarks wouldn't translate.

Maybe even a Robbie Savage type of player getting on your nerves and disrupting your play. So much so, that you forget about chasing the ball and want to chase and kick lumps out of the ku*t whose calling you out.

I would have proposed 'sledging' but there's just too many languages within the EPL and I suspect many remarks wouldn't translate.

Maybe even a Robbie Savage type of player getting on your nerves and disrupting your play. So much so, that you forget about chasing the ball and want to chase and kick lumps out of the ku*t whose calling you out.
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If we dont get one of these type of players,  days like Tuesday will happen again and again Groundhog f***in football 

Adding players who are dirty wouldn't be a step in the right direction for me, more like the type of tactic a Stoke type team would do.
We have the Skrtel wrestling octopus arms (might be into witchcraft as well) and Lucas voodoo Leiva yellow card machine plus Emre Can will get stuck in.

Hazard has had 25 yellow cards awarded against 25 individual players playing against him....says it all really , yet commentators & pundits laud him at every opportunity,
Its obvious that under Maureen Hazard has been instructed to go to ground at every opportunity even if contact is minimal,

I'd love to see how many yellow cards were awarded before Hazard played under Maureen,

Hazard by name, hazard by nature it seems , with a lot of influence from Maureen of course.



YNWA