Peter Crouch has appeared to justify Alexandre Lacazette’s screaming antics by claiming players who scream when tackled get more free kicks.
Lacazette came off the bench in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Burnley and he was tasked with helping them find a winning goal.
With the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struggling to break down Sean Dyche’s men, the Gunners needed more from their substitutes.
But Lacazette could not find a goal and he instead drew fouls from the Burnley players.
On one occasion when he was tackled, he let out a big scream as if he had his legs broken, but he soon continued with the game.
That scream attracted ridicule from around the world, including from pundits and Crouch says he should not do that.
He, however, admitted that players who do attract sympathy from the referee get more free kicks.
Responding to a fan who asked of his opinion on Mail Sports, Crouch wrote: “It certainly raised eyebrows, Steven! I never did it myself — good God, I would never have lived with myself — but I do know why players do it. Those who scream get more free-kicks than those who keep their mouths shut. It might not seem fair but that’s a way of getting the referee’s attention.
“I played with a few screamers in my time. The best example I remember came from my time at Liverpool. We lost 6-3 to Arsenal in a League Cup tie in January 2007. After 11 minutes, Mark Gonzalez — a winger who played for Chile — went down with the biggest scream I had heard.
“He had gas and air on the pitch and his knee was put in a brace. He was replaced by Luis Garcia, who sadly also ended up leaving the pitch on a stretcher after damaging his cruciate ligament. Luis looked in some discomfort but he never said a word, really.
“A couple of days later, I reported to Melwood and when I went into the gym, who was there only Gonzalez, doing squats with a 80kg bar. It was either the greatest recovery since Lazarus or the effects of the tackle that forced him off were not so harsh!”
Arsenal needs a striker that scores goals, not one that screams and they might sell the Frenchman off in the summer.
frankly I find it embarrassing, especially the way he constantly oversells potential fouls…he’s actually more likely to hurt himself when he’s simulating an injury…not to mention, this wears thin on the refs and we can’t afford to further undermine an already problematic relationship with the officials…it’s like he doesn’t even realize that the game is actually being filmed and will undoubtedly be reviewed by the officials…in the last game he acted like he had his Achilles raked by the defenders cleats, but upon closer inspection it was clearly a knee to the meaty part of his calf…at least save the theatrics for a legitimate foul in and around the box
Why save it for then? Did you see how the wolves player went down in our box at the very slightest of contacts? What has being good benefitted us? We play by the rules and get beaten by them. If others can win via drama, why not us? I actually think the lack of drama is costing us. Like you’ll read in my comment below, if we’d been more dramatic in our appeal for the burnley handball , we’d atleast have forced the refs decision.
It’s odd how arsenal fans cry when such things are done against us, cry when VAR doesn’t work in our favor , but somehow also want to keep the moral highroad and not involve themselves in any sort of cheating. I’m okay if a player lets out a scream and earns us a set piece in a dangerous location, rather than soldier on and let the enemy get us on the break. Do you have any idea how many more points we would have if the likes of Saka , Pepe and Auba could just go down at the right time and make a meal of it? Do you have any idea what a team like united and city could do if they had a player like Pepe? If any of you could dip into your memory banks, how many trophies can be attributed to Pedro drawing a foul at the right time in a Barcelona shirt?
Look at the lackluster way that arsenal players appeal the burnley handball . Yes Pepe puts his hand up , but the only player helping with the appeal is Xhaka with both hands up. At that point, all man city/united players, all eleven of them would run at the ref screaming at him . almost immediately after the handball , Pepe is back trying to protect the ball, Laca is doing something I can’t explain , Xhaka has his hands up for about a second, then gets back to cutting out a passing lane, do you have any idea how fast our opponents would have run at the ref if that was against us?
Arsenal are too good. we need to be more opportunistic . I’ve seen VAR calls against us simply because of how the opponents reacted.
Against Leicester, Pepe was fouled 5 times and only a yellow card was given. An arsenal player, I think Xhaka , committed one foul and got a yellow card. This piece encourages the sort of mentality that makes us loosers. I’ve cried long enough about other teams cheating us, that right now, I just want to win. the how doesn’t matter anymore.
Yhu simply killed that. So right…!
I understand why, but I still don’t like it. Realizing it is a bit naive, I still want us to win because we play better, not because our players scream more, we waste time or anything of that sort.
As far as I am concerned I will be happy if Lacazette leaves.