Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has reacted to Mauricio Pochettino’s comments about diving ahead of the upcoming clash between his side and Tottenham Hotspur.
The Argentine boss this week claimed that diving is taken way out of hand in England, and that it is almost celebrated back in his home country.
This has caused mixed reviews, and our manager Wenger has gone the other way, claiming that it should not be a part of the game.
“We have to get the diving out of the game,” Wenger said.
“I remember there were tremendous cases here when foreign players did it.
“But I must say the English players have learned very quickly and they might even be the masters now.”
Wenger then claims that Poch’s words may have been misconstrued, before insisting that the Tottenham manager wouldn’t apologise for his player’s diving given the chance.
“I am convinced that he wanted to say that tricking your opponent is to say that you have to be clever,” he added.
“How far was it an apology for diving? I’m not sure at all. I don’t think he would.
“In my personal case I don’t encourage them to dive at all.
“Sometimes you want your players to be intelligent, they have played a little bit with the rules, they make more of it on the penalty case.
“Every striker will do that. They extend, a little bit, the rules.
“Where is it and how far can you go? That is down to the referees and I think that sometimes, at normal speed, it is very difficult to determine.
“Most of the time, when a player is going to the goalkeeper, they push the ball away from goal.
“I think they had a good rule in England when I arrived here.
“When the striker pushes the ball away from the goal, they didn’t give penalties because the only resource the striker has after is to look for a penalty.
“In many cases it’s like that now, the guy goes and if the goalkeeper has their hands off, the striker leaves a leg as long as he can to make sure that the goalkeeper touches him. But that’s not really a penalty.”
Is diving taken out of proportion in England? Do many fans complain about diving when it benefits their own team? Can it ever be clamped down or removed from the game altogether?
Pat J