Hehe, Thegoalmac has learned that Chelsea assistant manager Steve Holland says the club's players are not diving, but attempting to avoid "career-ending tackles".
The Blues have had several players yellow-carded for simulation this
season but Jose Mourinho's No.2 feels that disproportionate attention is
given to them rather than those guilty of reckless challenges.
Holland
cited a tackle on Eden Hazard from Phil Bardsley of Stoke City in
Chelsea's 2-0 win on December 22 as an example of something that should
get closer attention.
"Watching the replays five times to
highlight how a player has spent more time in the air than he should've
done is not a difficult job," Holland told reporters, "but look at
Hazard at Stoke. If he doesn't see that tackle coming and get his studs
up, that finishes his career.
"When players anticipate challenges they try to get their feet off the ground. That makes it very difficult for referees.
"Eden
just gets on with it. He's incredible, with the stick he takes, but if
he gets up straight away after being whacked, that could discourage a
referee from taking action against a player who is trying to take him
out.
"Five minutes later he gets whacked again because the player hasn't got a yellow card.
"In
the Hull game [Filipe] Luis was on the receiving end of a tackle [from
Tom Huddlestone]. Those two tackles were career-ending tackles if they
connected, no doubt, yet we spend two or three days talking about how
long a player has spent in the air rather than what is done about the
perpetrators of those challenges. Where's the logic in that?"
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