Kevin Davies tackle on Gael Clichy was hard but fair!
Arsene Wenger hinted that the tackle was unfair. "It is a shin injury which means the tackle was quite high," he said. "Was it an accident? Was it mistimed? Only Davies can answer that.” Wenger told Skysports News after the game.
Well it was neither as far as I’m concerned. Firstly, Davies outstretched leg was on the ground . Secondly, he won the ball. It was Davies momentum and other leg that unfortunately clattered the young Frenchman.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Even The People newspaper got in on the act calling it a “horror tackle”. Has the country gone soft, even a working class man’s newspaper can’t take a tackle?
When Alan Shearer was asked his views on BBC’s Match Of The Day he said he saw nothing wrong with the tackle.
I’m currently listening to Clyde FM listening to Rangers vs. Motherwell. Pedro Mendes has been getting hammered all game and what does former Rangers hero Derek Johnstone (working for Clyde) think of it all?
He says it’s quite right, that’s what you do! Mendes remember is a Rangers player.
Why is everyone so scared of physical contact these days?
Pick yourself up, take a note of the number if you feel you must and get on with the game!
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2 months ago
His studs were up - it's a booking.
from 2 months ago
lol we don't agree on much David.
2 months ago
Yup, studs up - I'll say that all day long Andrew - that's not a fair challenge.. I remember Diaby doing something similar last season at the Reebok and he got a straight red.. I'm not saying that it should've been a sending off - but I'm contesting Megson's statements..
1. Bolton obviously did look to intimidate Arsenal - is he kidding me?
2. The tackle was not fair - as I said, his studs were showing - it was more of a lunge than a tackle.
You know my views on this Andrew.. football is a contact sport - but this was a striker's tackle.. a yellow card was alright, I suppose..
from 2 months ago
So why do so many people who have played the game have a different view point? Retired ex pro's who weren't scared of getting knocked about a bit?
I really don't see what is wrong with trying to intimidate the opposition either.
from about 1 month ago
It's frustrating Andrew because I play the game like you, physically and hard.
I leave the foot in, the elbow usually flys at corners and the studs are left up in tackles. I get get away with two footed challenges most of the time and the joy of those is winning the ball and sending the opponent flying.
I'm not nasty but its how I play, if your not willing to get hurt stay off the pitch...Clichy.
Football is sadly becoming a non-contact sport and people who try and put a bit of physicality like me are barnded Insane Thugs.
Its becoming a sad state of affairs our game is.
2 months ago
i agree with Shyam, i think the tackle was a lunge, mainly because he is a striker. his reputation doesn't help much either. but at the end of the day, the yellow card was fine, i don't think it should be a sending off.
the thing is, davies didn't need to lunge in that way to win the ball, i think in the back of his mind, he wanted to intimidate clichy, much like how barton wanted to intimidate nasri.
from 2 months ago
And there is nothing wrong with a strong intimidating tackle.....
from 2 months ago
when it is so intimidating that it stops a player from playing the second half, i think it deserves a yellow card right? an intimidating tackle which results in a big collision with the shin is perhaps a little over the top, as i said, not sending off, but yellow card is fair.
2 months ago
I agree with Andrew, it was Davies trailing leg that caught Clichy, unfortunate but fair... He did get the ball first. 20 years ago that wouldn't have even got a booking... yellow was fair and that should be the end of it. We don't want football to end up a totally non contact sport... Do we?
from 2 months ago
Definitely not Simon. It wouldn't even have been a free kick on any park across the country on a sat or sun afternoon.
2 months ago
Haha - Of course it was a booking, if only for dangerous play... when ur trailing leg ends up in the persons shin, meaning the top physio's send the player for x-rays to check for a break, then that is definately dangerous.
It was unlucky though, and in no way intentional, and i admit Andrew that those challenges go un called all across the country. but it WAS dangerous, and you can not argue that, and dangerous play IS a foul.
I dont even see where the argument on this is? The only one I can see is was it a yellow, red or no card, because it WAS a foul. In my opinion it was a yellow, NOT a red in anyway, and i can see how someone could argue it shouldnt of been a booking.
Verdict: foul.
from 2 months ago
I just don't agree that it was dangerous. Sorry James.
2 months ago
Im with you Andrew. Kevin Davies takes a lot of stick for his style of play but if you ask me hes a decent honest player. I miss tackling in football to be honest, i know if i was clichy (the hull sunday league version, + a stone or two i mean) i would relish that kind of tackle and would go into the next one hard and fair.
They say that tackling like this was thje norm 20 years ago but i think it was the norm ever more recently. Can anyone imagine the likes of Keane being bothered by a tackle like that?
from 2 months ago
Thanks Matt. I like Kevin Davies too, he's a real number 9 and he plays with his heart on his sleeve.
A few goals this season already. Roy keane would have stood up with a Joey Barton smile lol
2 months ago
Completely agree Andrew.
Football is now virtually a non-contact sport and that's not a good thing.
Tackling is a skill, only you are not allowed to show that skill anymore because virtually any time you do you get a free-kick given against you.
Just because Clichy got injured doesn't make it a bad tackle. He might have twisted his leg in the ground and been out for a year with cruciate ligament damage, does that mean Bolton's pitch should be deemed unplayable and 'sent off' as well?
There is a world of difference between a strong, commited tackle, and an intentionally dirty one, only most people today don't seem to able to see it because they are blinded by preening, injury feigning divers and whinging managers who only see what they want to see.
from 2 months ago
We agree again Simon. Lucky I was sitting down....
Good points you make and I'm amazed by people's inability to tell the two kind of tackles apart as well.
2 months ago
I just wonder why so much fuss around tackles these days? First Barton, then Guthrie and now Davies ... Football is a contact sport and tackles are expected though sometimes even unintentional tackles tend to turn ugly while intentional ones get away unharmed.
Good points by Simon though ... Completely agree with him.
from 2 months ago
Fair enough Dev. I just have to defend the beautiful game as I see it.
from 2 months ago
As often quoted in literature, the beasts are bound to creep in where the beauty is!
2 months ago
Eh? Keane would have stood up with a smile? while the physios were telling him he needs to go for an x-ray to check if his shin was broken? dude, thats just a bad argument. When keane broke a bone, he went and broke the player months later, NOT smile and get on with it.
the top physios thought it was broken, and anyone who thinks Clichy should have played on against the advice of his employers who thought his shin was BROKEN and that he could be out for the rest of 2008 needs to get a reality check.
Call it what you want, it was dangerous because it nearly broke someones leg. I've tackled a lot of people playing Sunday league, and the few times they've gone for hospital for x rays after i've caught them i havent written articles about how it was a fair challenge!!!
seriously, the world has gone mad.Oh, and breaking news...Davies admits to trying and 'kicking us'. NOT tackling us fairly. In his words, its to see if they'll come back! -http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article1721920.ece
Seriously, everyone has well and truly embarassed themselves here.
from 2 months ago
Seriously dude, I was joking about Keane. Duh...No one has said Clichy should have played on. If you've sent more than one person to hospital then you must be as dirty as Kevin Davies.
Yes James, the same way every defender starts off a game....hit them early...it's hardly breaking news.
2 months ago
i agree with you andrew, nothing wrong with that tackle. i do tackles similar to that all the time in my sunday league games, i don't get a booking or anything. not even a foul half the time.
from 2 months ago
going back to my comment above, i know there is a rather large difference between sunday league and professional, but still, i think it was a fair tackle!! just wanted to highlight that so you wouldn't all complain.
from 2 months ago
Thanks Yoosof. I'm sure no one will have a go at you. The guy complaining above even admitted to putting people in hospital...but he thinks it was a bad tackle...so I think your safe from scrutiny.
2 months ago
Haha, I'm just laregely hungover and not very good!!! lol, it was more a metaphor for some peoples reaction to this incident than being literal. Reading over it AMAZED people didn't pick up on that one? Writing articles? Xrays? Although I did fracture someones arm in year 4 or something, and to this day I claim it was fair!!! lol. I was just roughing him up!!!
I cant believe people think going out to purposefully kick teams and nearly breaking someone's leg isn't a foul? I am dumbfounded at how this is actually an opinion of anyone in the world? How is purposefully being rough and nearly breaking someones leg anything other than dangerous? how? Dangerous play IS a foul. I honest to god do not understand your arguments? It makes no sense whatsoever? Deliberately fouling players, nearly breaking their leg, gloating about doing such after the game (which you lost) and then doing it week in week out in your career, how is that not a foul?
Is anyone here Scottish? Support Scottish football teams? that is the ONLY explanation I have. A joint love of Scottish football (I'm guessing a lower team like Hearts or Aberdeen, although if one of the big two it has to be Celtic) and the Coca Cola Championship (Wolves?). The only explanation.
In fact its so baffling I'm forgetting it.
Laters.
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