04 Apr 2017 18:25:07
Ed's, I don't know if you have the stats on this, but last year we lost origi for the remainder of the season due to an injury at everton. This year we lost mane. Do you know how many players we lose to injury playing everton vs. every other team? It seems likely it's high. And I'm sure most derby's have increased risk, but it seems too high. There were so many bad tackles in the game against everton, I don't know if there is a dirtier team than everton (with manu a close second)
{Ed001's Note - not a clue mate, I wouldn't know which stats firm would even keep stats on that.}
04 Apr 2017 21:26:42
your right mate, the Derby games are getting dangerous, more so if Dross Barckley is playing .
04 Apr 2017 23:37:51
Last season Origi was flying and an Everton horror tackle all but ended his season. I therefore think it would be rather fitting if his goal at the weekend kick starts his revival at the club!
I think their are just a select few players who are just really nasty and want to hurt their fellow pros. Lee Cattermole, James McClean, Joey Barton, Ross Barkley, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Marouane Fellaini and Ryan Shawcross are just a few of the biggest culprits.
Let's not pretend we never had guys like it though. Carragher and Gerrard for a start were very nasty players who intentionally tried to hurt opposition players at times. There really is no denying it when you see some of their tackles; studs up, knee height, lunging in etc. It is nice to have a player who will get stuck in or even make a hard tackle, but the English game in particular does seem to brush borderline GBH under the carpet. In fact in some cases it is glorified and misrepresented as passion!
For me it is one of the biggest reasons England can't touch Spain, Germany, France or Holland on the international stage. We breed the wrong attitudes and praise the wrong things. Aggression does not have to descend into brutality.