Barcelona and Diving Accusations

[Mr Hulot]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jun/29/spain-brazil-confederations-cup-final

I just read this article and even though I know better, I started reading some of the comments. Can someone explain to me this misconception that Barcelona is a diving team... I honestly believe that we are no different than any other top team, in terms of diving. Teams like Madrid or Chelsea are probably even worse, but nobody seem to single them out.

 

[DonAndres]

To be honest we are one of the slightly worse diving teams. Madrid is definitely worse than us and maybe United, but I can't of other teams who have as many consistent divers as we do. Alexis, Cesc, Alba, Pedro, Neymar, etc. are the consistent divers while we have others who pitch in with the occasional dive. Madrid have many more, but other teams maybe have 1-2 guys with a legitimate diving reputation.

 

[Mr Hulot]

Even though I agree that we have a lot of players that occasionally dive, I also have this conception that players in other teams dive occasionally as well. Also, this reputation follows our team from a time before Alexis, Cesc, Alba and Neymar came. Probably as it is cool to be a Barcelona hater, we were an easy target, because of Busquets' exaggerations, but what puzzles me is that Barcelona is still a synonym of a diving, while Chelsea, Madrid, Liverpool and United are hardly even mentioned.

 

[DonAndres]

Well I agree that a lot of people overreact and just hate for the sake of it (saying we buy refs, etc.) but it's not like our players are "occasional" divers. We have pretty consistent ones whereas many other teams don't have that many. Chelsea have Torres and even he isn't that consistent at diving. Liverpool have Suarez and possible Gerrard. United have Young, Valencia, Nani, so they do have some consistent divers. Madrid have too many to count. We have around 5 consistent and even more occasional ones, so yes I do objectively observe that out of all the top teams in Europe we have an above average amount of divers.

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

Some of our players do dive, a lot. I wish we would cut down on it, obviously it's part of the game nowadays & yes every club has one or two players that do it, but I don't think it's down to just "hating" being the reason why we particularly have a reputation.

I think the Busquets "jokes" are annoying though because he's not even really one of the top five divers in our team. He just had the most high profile one.

 

[Chainsaw]

Not this again

 

[Ghost]

I don't see how could the british media/EPL fans complain about diving when Suarez and Bale dive in a year more than the entire Barca/Real squad.

 

[Stric]

I think there are many other top-level teams who are actually worse divers than we are (although I don't deny we have some shameful divers in our squad). The thing is, though, as far as I've been able to notice, and however illogical it might seem to many people (including me), is that we get an even worse reputation for diving because we have tiny, weak players. Somehow all of that combined makes for a reputation of "pussies". I myself would be more critical of big strong players diving than our Barca midgets, but I guess people just stop at nothing (including logic) to criticize their opponent clubs as much as they can.

 

[diegomessi]

Who cares.....seriously

 

[serghei]

I don't see how could the british media/EPL fans complain about diving when Suarez and Bale dive in a year more than the entire Barca/Real squad.

It's called hypocrisy. All teams have players who dive, end of discussion.

 

[ryuken]

The thing begins to grow with the introduction of exaggerate king Busquet, but he seem to tone it down, and then come Alexis with his routine run - bump - drop

 

[beautifulgame]

Who cares.....seriously

THIS!!!

what a ridiculous obsession, started by the english because lets face it, they need some way to criticize talented footballers about which they know zilch.

 

[Vantheman]

Don't put mud on our name, Man Utd players don't dive or else they get punished by David Moyes. Sure, we've had the occasional dive from Rooney and Nani but only to get penalties. I would prefer to call it exaggerated contact.The likes of Busquets are criminal in the game and dive and fake being hurt just to get the other player booked or sent of like the case of Inter in the champions league and getting pepe sent off against Real.

Exaggerating contact is different than going all over the floor, rolling over like you were shot dead and then getting up like nothing happened when you see the other player getting carded. I've never seen such a thing from any of our players.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Man Utd players don't dive or else they get punished by David Moyes.

Have they already gotten the opportunity to dive?

The likes of Busquets are criminal in the game

Have you watched Barcelona at all this season? If you have, can you tell me the last time you saw Busquets, or really any player dive?

 

[Vantheman]

Have they already gotten the opportunity to dive?



Have you watched Barcelona at all this season? If you have, can you tell me the last time you saw Busquets, or really any player dive?

If you look up some incidents he had with Everton players in the past, not just diving; He tends to punish them even if they don't get punished by the FA.

I'm not saying that Barcelona are divers, I'm saying that the likes of Busquets and Dani Alves create a very bad image over the team. I think that the manager should threaten players that dive and even if they don't get banned by your football association, the club should ban them from playing as a punishment.
That's why I hate Ashley Young. He throws himself all over the place and I want him gone from the team.