(03-12-2018, 09:27 AM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote: Tottenham flopping all over the place against Bournemouth

SO I ASK THOSE OF YOU IN THE KNOW ..... Are there certain PL Teams and Players that are known for their excessive flopping in attempt to draw penalty kicks or red/yellow cards?  Tottenham was flopping all over the place yesterday; especially Son Heung-min.

Funnily enough, yes there are.

One of the worst ones for it is Dele Alli. He's an excellent player but has to cut that out of his game.

Son is bad too, as you rightly suggest.

Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) is bad for it and is Raheem Sterling (Manchester City).

Tottenham Hotspur's manager has said to his players "if you sense contact, you should go down" - this is simulation and should be stamped out, not promoted.

Take the Manchester United v Liverpool game, there was an instance in which Salah was being pushed and pulled in the Manchester United penalty area, if he had gone down he would have (rightly) been awarded a penalty. However, he remained honest and stayed on his feet, the play fizzled out to nothing and no foul was given. For continuity, more players should have this attitude. I get that you can be awarded a penalty, but why go down if the challenge doesn't force you to do so? It's the very reason for why Soccer players get such a bad rep.

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(03-12-2018, 09:32 AM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote:

(03-12-2018, 04:00 AM)DarloJAG84 Wrote: Considering their remaining 8 games left:

Norwich (away) 14th in the table
Leeds (home) 15th in the table
Sheffield Wednesday (away) 17th in the table
Reading (home) 19th in the table
Brentford (home) 11th in the table
Millwall (away) 10th in the table
Sunderland (home) 24th (bottom) in the table
Birmingham (away) 22nd in the table.

Obviously the results aren't a forgone conclusion but it would take a brave person to bet against them staking a claim.

They're all tricky games for different reasons.

Brentford and Millwall are London rivals and the games should be tight, mainly because these two teams are vying for bragging rights. Sheffield Wednesday, Reading and Leeds do not want to get sucked into the late relegation battle.. Norwich are still not mathematically incapable of making the playoffs, but it's doubtful. Birmingham are fighting for their lives at the bottom and Sunderland are all but down.

I think Wolverhampton Wanderers will win the league and looking at Cardiff City's remaining games, Fulham will remain in the playoffs rather than breaking into the top 2. I do think, however, they'll be the best placed team in the playoffs (considering they keep the run going) solely down to momentum.

If the season was to end today, with Fulham, Derby County, Middlesboro and Aston Villa in the playoff spots, I'd bet my money on Fulham winning the playoffs and advancing to the Premier League. The old (British) saying of "it's a funny old game" will come into this, obviously.. this is the reason why I think The Championship league is so much more exciting than the Premier League.

WOW  !!   I totally overlooked the progress of Fulham FC as they were stagnant around the 8-12 mark in the standings earlier in the year.   This is going to get fun and exciting.  It would be huge if they can get promoted to the PL; preferably as a #1 or #2 finish.  The 4-team playoffs scare me because, as was the case last year, all it takes is 1 bad call to lose a game via a penalty kick (see Fulham vs Reading 2017 --- it sucked) !!

Absolutely, luckily the playoff semi-finals are over two legs (home and away) with the second leg being decided by Extra Time and penalties if the game ends in a draw. So if you have a poor first leg, you can at least have a second chance at rectifying it.

The final, however is a lottery.

I'm not sure if you know the way it's set up, but for those who don't, the final table will show the top two in the Championship league get promoted automatically.. then 3rd plays 6th and 4th plays 5th both over two legs.. the winner of each plays each other at Wembley in the final with the winner advancing to the Premier League.

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