Grimsby spoiling tactics

[Nudga]

As has been said on other posts, our performance was awful and we didn't deserve anything from that game but what changed the game was on 20 minutes when one their players went down "injured".

Then we get the customary team talks in. Grimsby changed something at that point and stopped us playing, they also deployed the dark arts of feigning injury, diving at the slightest touch, time wasting etc.

I hate everything about this in modern football and I would hate it if Rovers did this as much as what Grimsby did yesterday. 
I actually wouldn't go and pay my hard earned money to watch it.

Palace did the same but refs are so easily conned, I don't get it. How obvious is it when a player goes down seemingly in extreme pain then when gets the free kick and/or player booked, gets up and trots off like nowts happened.

Gone are the days of blokes going at it for 90 minutes and trying to walk off a genuine full blooded tackle

Just to reiterate, we deserved nothing from that game and it's not an excuse for losing, I'm just getting more frustrated watching modern day football.

[Chris Black come back]

That was indeed bad but we were far worse.

[Filo]

The ref was pathetic with it, in added time their keeper was timewasting with a goalkick and he was just trotting to the centre circle facing away from the keeper, didn’t have a clue what the keeper was up to, most refs back peddle to the centre circle keeping an eye on the ball and keeper

[Donnywolf]

Well done Nudga for writing what I have been contemplating writing since yesterday

My title was going to be " The (so called) beautiful game is dead" and it is exactly aligned with what you have expressed above.

I was disappointed with the result yesterday , no question , but far far more than that I was totally disappointed at the way we were beaten by Grimsby and the lengths they went to to cheat their way to victory

I have to say at this point , that they may have beaten us without their additional " plan" to do so.

Also they are the latest Team to work us over , not the first and yes YES I know we do it to others and I hate that with a passion too

If we were performing like they did yesterday I would not watch Rovers again. If I were a Grimsby fan this morning I would probably hang up my "boots" this morning and say , why work all week , get petrol money , get beer money , buy Tickets , but a Pie and trot to Donny to watch that

We often say on here , a win is a win . We used to play some great to watch Football under SOD and lose 1-0 at home , and then and since then we might win after being hammered by the opposition , or scoring a lucky goal during a poor display , or just winning via a ground out performance , and we say WINNING is what counts. We would rather win ugly as it's the result that counts

Again I totally agree but the game is going to die if Teams introduce more and more cheating into their game(s) and it was evident yesterday that the cheating juggernaut IS there and it IS increasing its grip and IT is being worked on probably as much as set pieces on the training ground

[Nudga]

Wolfy, my definition of winning ugly is route one football, chasing opposition down and smashing in to every single challenge.
That, I don't mind when it's needed. It's the cheating and time wasting now that's making football unrecognisable.

I've totally stopped watching top flight football now, I don't want to feel like that with Rovers as it's always been a release from the pressures of life.

[GazLaz]

I think the laws around injuries and stopping the game need to be thought about. Not sure what the answer is but I’d start by making the players stand in the centre circle when the game is stopped for injury.

[Bentley Bullet]

"Footballers spend 90 Minutes Pretending to be Hurt, Rugby Players Spend 80 Minutes Pretending NOT to be Hurt."

Now't so true.

[Nudga]

Yellow cards for those faking injury to get the game stopped would help.

Also goal kicks should be taken from the side of the area where the ball went out of play.

Goalkeepers now go to the opposite side just to wind down the clock a bit more.

End of the day, we all pay our money for the entertainment of watching the sport we love. I don't pay to watch this.

I can handle crap games now and again, being a rovers fan there's more crap than great.

[Padge_DRFC]

It's simple for me. Phsyios on whilst the game is in play like rugby.

Ball not in play clock stopped. 60 minute matches

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I think the laws around injuries and stopping the game need to be thought about. Not sure what the answer is but I’d start by making the players stand in the centre circle when the game is stopped for injury.

Yep, debated this with a few friends aswell as it's a clear issue. We said the centre circle would work and stop it.

The EFL went all out to stop time wasting a year or so ago with longer added time and more yellows (too far in some cases) but that's worn off again.  Fans hate time wasting more than most I would say.

[BobG]

If I wasn't already a Rovers supporter I wouldn't become one. Football isn't a game to fall in love with nowadays - appalling leadership over decades, rampant greed, omnipresent cheating and continual farcical rule tinkering. What is there to love?

BobG

[selby]

  We ask for it, too many of our players are an easy touch,  we don't make teams turn and play pit pat in front of them in our own half and getting the ball forward slowly to players with no room to work, and invite a challenge.
 Sharp and Ironside have men up their backside all the game while it takes six or seven passes to get the ball anywhere near them, they havn't a chance, and some think they are the poor players.
  Also because we play most balls across the field of play sometimes with up to four or five passes  we end up out numbered in midfield and get outnumbered around the centre circle, and have no runners in that important part of the field.
  Hughes (admitted class) just dominated us in that area all night Monday and we never got near him in there all night, just carried on doing what we do every game, while he hardly made a run of over twenty yards all night and had all the time in the world.

[Ian Nimmo]

Spot on Selby
My main concern is if we are all seeing this predictable pattern of play, why is Grant not seeing this?
He says we have two of best front players in division, however neither are scoring because they are not getting balls to give them a chance. All too often they are having to come too deep.

[Bentley Bullet]

  We ask for it, too many of our players are an easy touch,  we don't make teams turn and play pit pat in front of them in our own half and getting the ball forward slowly to players with no room to work, and invite a challenge.
 Sharp and Ironside have men up their backside all the game while it takes six or seven passes to get the ball anywhere near them, they havn't a chance, and some think they are the poor players.
  Also because we play most balls across the field of play sometimes with up to four or five passes  we end up out numbered in midfield and get outnumbered around the centre circle, and have no runners in that important part of the field.
  Hughes (admitted class) just dominated us in that area all night Monday and we never got near him in there all night, just carried on doing what we do every game, while he hardly made a run of over twenty yards all night and had all the time in the world.

That's exactly how I see it. I'll also add that too many times our players receive the ball and release it on the spot with no movement like it's a hot potato. During the game against Grimsby, as soon as one of our players actually ran with the ball it caused a threat. Unfortunately, that was a rare occurrence until the last 10 minutes or so.

Our performance against Grimsby was so bad it made them look better than Crystal Palace!

[i_ateallthepies]

The unpalatable truth is that too many of our midfield players simply aren't good enough to dominate midfield which makes everybody's job so much harder.  How many times must the back four play it across the field before they see a body to play it to? and then once it gets to midfield the opposition are set and ready to take possession back.

Grant was backed in the summer but it appears his determination to get two bodies for each position has spread the budget too thin and we lack the quality whoever he puts in there.  Choosing a handful of quality players with versatility to play across the back four might have been a better option.

[danumdon]

Its all become a symptom of group think in football today.

The premiership clubs have become obsessed with playing football a certain way, its what all young up and coming coaches get rammed down their throats.

Consequently we have teams in the lower tiers attempting their versions of this "method of play" which never works correctly because the players are just not good enough to carry it off.

Its becoming very rare these days to see team playing in a style and manner thats different to this "norm"

Unfortunately for supporters of lower league teams alongside getting to "inherit" this convoluted and very boring to watch manner of play we also are having to accept all the cheating, time wasting and general fu**wittery that goes along with this package.

Makes you really question if its all worth the bother, even when we get on top of a team, when was the last time we took someone apart? it just never happens anymore?, the spectacle of watching the game is becoming more a package of commercialised crap than ever before.

Soulless and boring football will be the death of this game, something that none of us want but are getting force fed on a daily basis until eventually it finally cracks.

I know a lot of people who just don't come to the games anymore, they have plenty to do in their lives that gives them far more satisfaction than watching sub par players attempting to be as arrogant and conceited as the prima donna's in the premiership.

This sterilised and clinical manner of playing the beautiful game will be the end of it as a spectical.

[Pintolager]

If I wasn't already a Rovers supporter I wouldn't become one. Football isn't a game to fall in love with nowadays - appalling leadership over decades, rampant greed, omnipresent cheating and continual farcical rule tinkering. What is there to love?

BobG

A big reason why I don't have the same passion for football as I used to. I only go to maybe 6 or 7 games a season now. As for this feigning injury nonsense, it really is taking the p!ss

[ForsolongaRover]

Interesting points Danum. You can certainly relate “playing out from the back” to the modern game. Possibly as little as 10 years ago, if there was a goal kick, most of the players would assemble on one side or other of the halfway line.

We also had our own taste of the epitome of modern strategy when we suffered the “processes” of Schofield which were utterly consistently destructive of entertainment.

Time-wasting goes right back to my earliest days of watching football though - when the convention of adding time at the end did not exist. Then, I don’t remember it included the pretence of injury and the histrionics and cries of pain that go along with it. At that time masculine characteristics (on the football field at least) were rather different from the present day with less than 10 years gone since the end of WW2. I can remember the way players would get up as quickly as possible so as not to give the tackler the satisfaction of knowing that they’d really been hurt!

[drfchound]

The time wasting and cheating that now happens all too often must be something that is talked about and rehearsed during the week and at training sessions.
There is no way that players just come up with these ruses off the top of their heads on match days.
Even goal celebrations last a couple of minutes, unless of course a goal is scored when chasing a game then oddly enough players are back in their own half and ready to play again within a few seconds.
Keepers delaying re- starts from goal kicks and free kicks is possibly the worst one though, almost always more than 30 seconds unless their team is looking to get back into a game.
Referees seem to be blind to what is happening.

[Bessie Red]

The feigning of injuries at certain times of the game is footballs equivalent of the "time out" you see in other sports. It is so obvious now it's almost laughable, the players will definitely have been told when to do it before kick off!!

[Jimmydee]

Wolfy, my definition of winning ugly is route one football, chasing opposition down and smashing in to every single challenge.
That, I don't mind when it's needed. It's the cheating and time wasting now that's making football unrecognisable.

I've totally stopped watching top flight football now, I don't want to feel like that with Rovers as it's always been a release from the pressures of life.

I agree about the cheating and I also think that route one might not be pretty but I think that it’s the only way out of this league.

[Draytonian III]

There’s another version of Grimsby’s “ spoiling tactics “ on Instagram, filmed next to a smoking/bus shelter near the roundabout close to Hyde Park Club, I think

[DonnyBazR0ver]

It's simple for me. Phsyios on whilst the game is in play like rugby.

Ball not in play clock stopped. 60 minute matches

Generally agree but I don't see why we should be short changed by reducing the game to 60 mins, particularly as these footballers are supposedly fitter than previous generations and, we have the luxury of 5 subs...yes 5.

We've covered the issue of a match clock which can be stopped and started however the powers that be decide how to implement it.

Players behaviour would change however, I'm not entirely sure that it would eradicate the tactical injury (or time out as aptly described above) altogether, that doesn't waste time but disrupts the flow of the game unless, as you say, a medical assessment is allowed whilst the ball is in play. (This could be potentially dangerous though for genuine injuries, plus if the player falls in central areas of the pitch obstructing play)

In addition, I think it's a difficult one ask the referee with having to determine whether a player is feigning injury.

Most of the frustration comes from the unknown when we're kept in the dark how much time is being added for each stoppage. The keeper yesterday wasted time in injury time but no further time was added.

A clock counting down would relieve that frustration, making it clear how longs left and, might even add to the excitement with teams giving it the last hurrah to beat the clock. Who knows, but I think a trial of some sort ought to be carried out.

[Lesonthewest]

The lad who went down for them holding his head was a prime example of blatant cheating, bring in a red card for doing it, it would soon stop. The delaying tactics  & time wasting has gone on from year dot, would definitely not stop me becoming a supporter of my club though, or anything else going on, no chance.

[vaya]

The lad who went down for them holding his head was a prime example of blatant cheating, bring in a red card for doing it, it would soon stop. The delaying tactics  & time wasting has gone on from year dot, would definitely not stop me becoming a supporter of my club though, or anything else going on, no chance.

The head injury protocols were brought in for good reasons. Feigning one runs the risk of genuine incidents eventually getting ignored.

[ravenrover]

How about every time a player goes down for whatever reason and stops play the.physio must come on and said player sits out his 30secs off field? I'd prefer the physio to come on and treat while.play continues but need to look for alternative

[drfchound]

We have had situations recently where a player is fouled and injured and needs the trainer.
The game is stopped then the injured player has to go off for 30 seconds while the player who caused the injury stays on and his side has a one player advantage for those 30 seconds.
It happened to us on. Saturday.
Surely that can’t be fair.

[Pancho Regan]

As has been said on other posts, our performance was awful and we didn't deserve anything from that game but what changed the game was on 20 minutes when one their players went down "injured".

Then we get the customary team talks in. Grimsby changed something at that point and stopped us playing, they also deployed the dark arts of feigning injury, diving at the slightest touch, time wasting etc.

I hate everything about this in modern football and I would hate it if Rovers did this as much as what Grimsby did yesterday. 
I actually wouldn't go and pay my hard earned money to watch it.

Palace did the same but refs are so easily conned, I don't get it. How obvious is it when a player goes down seemingly in extreme pain then when gets the free kick and/or player booked, gets up and trots off like nowts happened.

Gone are the days of blokes going at it for 90 minutes and trying to walk off a genuine full blooded tackle

Just to reiterate, we deserved nothing from that game and it's not an excuse for losing, I'm just getting more frustrated watching modern day football.

Well said Nudga, I agree 100%.

I said exactly the same as we left the stadium. In no way did we deserve anything from the game thanks to an inept performance. However, the spoiling tactics employed by Grimsby and tolerated by the ref were embarrassing and infuriating.

Blatant time-wasting and feigning injury are the worst aspects of football nowadays. Players who constantly cheat and waste time are a disgrace to the game and that display by Grimsby on Saturday was one of the worst examples I've seen.

[ForsolongaRover]

If a player goes down injured or allegedly injured and his behaviour prompts the ref to stop play he should be obliged to leave the field for however long he has stopped the play. And this should be irrespective of whether he has actually needed the physio.

A reasonable test of whether the physio is needed is whether the player can get to his feet; if he can and does, play ought not to stop unless he calls for assistance. If the injury is significant enough or involves his head, he should welcome medical assistance.

I’m always amused when teams carry on playing when a member of  their own team stays down and they DON’T stop play.

On goal kicks, perhaps there should be a time limit.

If a study were made of football injuries, it would be interesting  to know whether there is any real benefit from immediate attention. If you compare it with normal life experience it would be like going to the doctor every time you cut your finger or got a bruise. Footballers are so delicate and pampered.

[oggycompton]

As you said at the beginning OP, doesnt change the fact that none of our players could pass the ball more than 10 yards. Truly awful performance and it doesnt sit at Grimsbys door who were well worth the victory.