I've only seen the first half but seeing Fernandes getting targeted reminded me of the Herrera's red card some years back against Chelsea. He got a 2nd yellow because of the team's constant fouling of Hazard, yesterday it was free for all on Bruno and nothing was given.
'Tactical' fouls
- Thread starter matherto
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Fernandes wasn't even the most fouled player for you yesterday, that would be Fred. Fred was fouled 4 times to lead United, Fernandes was fouled 3 times. Granted, he did get kicked right in the bellend by Azpi accidentally on a break but he also blatantly dove to draw a foul vs. Kovacic so that's a wash. In terms of Chelsea players, Kovacic and James made 4, Rudiger and Giroud made 3, and no one else made more than 2.
Chelsea adopted the Liverpool model of spreading fouls out and doing so in the process of pressing high up - I don't think there were many instances of United players getting past the press and being pulled back. It was clearly a deliberate strategy to foul United's forwards as they received the ball and tried to lay it off - cynical to some extent yes but I don't think there was any single player you could point to who was targeted or who was doing the targeting.
City players get away with murder right in front of the refs eyes every game.
Why isn’t Pep ever labelled a dirty manager? Because he fecking is.
City and Liverpool are the biggest culprits and it's a huge reason why they're so successful. I can't believe they haven't picked up on this shit over the past three years. It's cheating, plain and simple.
Tactical foul should result in a free just outside the box
Pochettino’s sides were the same. It seems that if you are ‘playing football the right way’, you are never called out on this blatant cheating and you’ll continually get away with it.
The absolute worst thing about modern football, IMO. Klopp, Guardiola et al have carte blanche to do as they fecking please. It’s disgusting.
The absolute worst thing about modern football, IMO. Klopp, Guardiola et al have carte blanche to do as they fecking please. It’s disgusting.
Worst one is that blatant drag back with the hand. Ought to be singled out for a yellow.
Must be a City game on when this thread gets bumped
Do people think there needs to be some sort of rule change to try and stop tactical fouls? More and more teams are playing a high press now, which naturally brings tactical fouls, to stop the opponent countering.
Just last night we had Kampl firstly trip over Bruno to stop a counter, then 10 minutes later slide into Williams on the edge of the area, no yellow was given for either. Yet if you compare that to the yellow card Shaw got, he slid in from the side, but pretty clean won the ball. That must be on the basis that the ref thought it was mildly dangerous, but honestly, how many injuries do you see a season for just a regular slide tackle? It seems like if there’s any contact on a slide tackle now, you’re getting a yellow.
Given that it’s largely the better teams that use a high press, should they then have an extra advantage by being allowed to stop quick counters regularly without punishment. Maybe I’m just annoyed about last night though.
Just last night we had Kampl firstly trip over Bruno to stop a counter, then 10 minutes later slide into Williams on the edge of the area, no yellow was given for either. Yet if you compare that to the yellow card Shaw got, he slid in from the side, but pretty clean won the ball. That must be on the basis that the ref thought it was mildly dangerous, but honestly, how many injuries do you see a season for just a regular slide tackle? It seems like if there’s any contact on a slide tackle now, you’re getting a yellow.
Given that it’s largely the better teams that use a high press, should they then have an extra advantage by being allowed to stop quick counters regularly without punishment. Maybe I’m just annoyed about last night though.
Fernandinho getting away with 50 fouls as per usual 
And another .. 51 was obviously the limit for the refFernandinho getting away with 50 fouls as per usual
City are the best at tactical fouls in the world. Any time we had men over. Bang. Foul. Nobody does it better.
Mc Tominay throwing them out like prime Fernandinho for sure today.
The ref missed a couple. The one mct got upended which ended in the pen decision and another one fernadinho upended pogba.
He played good advantages but then forgot to go back and book them
He played good advantages but then forgot to go back and book them
Pogba, McTominay and Lindelof could have easily got yellows too for their fouls today, so to bump this thread after today really is weird.