Are the days of the "meaty" tackle forever behind

[insomniac]

Just finished watching the Porto v Liverpool Champion’s League game.
I found it very frustrating that, seemingly, whenever a tackle was made that involved the slightest bodily contact, even if the challenger got the ball first, the Ref blew for a foul. (And of course the tackled players rolled over in agony as though both legs had been broken by a lump-hammer.)
Have we gone too far down this road?
I can remember when a sliding tackle from behind was almost an art form worthy of applause from both sets of fans when executed correctly (i.e. when the tackler got the ball first and then ploughed through the man). Do it now and it’s a red card job.
Are today’s footballers a lot of histrionic jessies and the referees quasi health and safety types who don’t realise that some physical contact is not only inevitable but, more often than they allow for nowadays, quite fair?

[MikkyMo73]

Hi Insomniac,

I’m evidently not as old as you. This opinion is not based on this thread, but on the thread about Roberto where you contributed so well.

But regardless of age (I am 34 by the way) I still know exactly where you are coming from with this thread. I very rarely watch foreign games these days (Spanish/Italian League etc) because of what you have pointed out, so when I watch an English team on foreign turf I tend to expect what happened tonight.

As a teenager in the 80’s, I loved players like Peter Reid and Bryan Robson, and even 5 years ago people like Roy Keane and Patrick Vieria. The reason I loved these type of players, well I need say no more as I am certain you will know what I am on about. It’s so good to see a brilliantly timed, crunching tackle that goes unpunished by the ref. It’s even better when the players involved just get on with it because of the respect they have for each other.

Unfortunately though, as you have said, the majority of the above mentioned tackles result in a free kick, players rolling around like pansies, and a yellow card being shown.

Mind you, my father once said that players like Robson, Reid, Keane and Vieira would look like ballerina’s in comparison to the likes of Norman Hunter and Billy Bremner . Now I wish I was around to see those tackles.

Mike

[insomniac]

Marb

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