Protect Our Flair Players?

[Chelsea Lad 0]

It's the debate of football at the moment and is one that is really splitting the opinions of those in the game.

Ferguson and Wenger, recently, have been the ones arguing that their player's don't get enough protection from referees. I for one don't see why their player's should get any extra advantage of having protected players, but that's them two ol' moaners for ya.

They are obviously talking about their flair players. The likes of Van Persie and Ronaldo who are prone to skipping past defenders elegantly before flopping to the floor like a bag of bricks and picking up a free kick.

Defending and tackling is an art. It's just as much of a part of the game as the feet of Ronaldo but, unfortunately, it is a dying art. I read somewhere that their are 23% less tackles now a days compared to just 5 years ago. I'd imagine the percentage would double if it were compared with 10 years ago.

I grew up in the latter days of brutal football, 1999/2000 was my first season so I still got to witness the likes of Steven Gerrard (dirty days), Patrick Viera, Roy Keane, John Terry (obviously), Dennis Wise etc making challenges left right and centre. I loved the little on field 'punch-ups' that resulted from the challenges, it gets the fans' off their bums and alights passion into dull games, just like a darting run from a wide man does.

I can't remember the last time their was loads of players pushing each other and hand-bag's being throw between opposite players since perhaps the Carling Cup final a few years back between Chelsea and Arsenal, and even that doesn't compare to some fights we've seen in the past and yet, still, veterans of the game in Wenger and Ferguson are moaning about the light-weight challenges in the modern game!

I for one love seeing a perfectly executed sliding challenge from a defender on an attacker who’s just about to whip the ball from the defenders feet. I, sometimes, love seeing this more than a player dribbling past a few players and hitting the ball into the back of the net from 20 yards. It gets hearts pumping and fans fuming in a way nothing else does in football.

The challenge on Ronaldo by Phil Neville a few weeks back got me off the seat shouting at the box watching MOTD, it's so rare to see such a perfectly executed challenge by a defender on such a quick forward, it was great to watch but got me annoyed that the Everton man got so much criticism. All this criticism was because Ronaldo was rolling around like he was having some sort of fit whilst clutching his leg liked it's been snapped in half or it had just been blown off by a terrorist bomb attack. Just 10 years ago forwards would of jumped up and shrugged their shoulders at those sort of challenges and would applaud the defender for the tackle.

So yeah discuss, should our 'flair' players be given more protection? Does tackling give you such a rush that can be compared to the sort of feeling you get watching some intuitive piece of attacking play? Or are tackles more dangerous these days, should ref's be harsher?

P.s. I wasn't sure were to post this, so move it if needs be...

[Drogba11CFC 108]

Fergie obviously doesn't realise that Ronaldo going down and gripping his leg in "agony" is different from the injuries Cech and JT suffered in 06/07.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

If you stop certain players from being tackled, you ruin the entire aspect of defending, in my opinion. A player cannot help if they are built strong like Adebayor and Drogba, or are small and physically challenged in comparison, like Fabregas and Nani. It works the same for defenders - they can't choose who to tackle, as its the main part of their game. You won't see a defender go in hard on Luca Toni but then let Ronaldo run straight past them. A tackle is a tackle, at the end of the day, and 'flair' players shouldn't be protected from tackling.

[Chelsea Lad 0]

A whole new debate is how dangerous is the 'trailing leg'? For me, if the defender gets the ball before the player it is fair no matter how dangerous the tackle (unless the defender is obviously trying to hurt the attacker).