Yeah I'm no fan of diving either. After the grief I gave Anichebe, would be hypocritical of me not to condemn Richarleson for the same thing where he was doing it.
That being said, the ref gave him no protection from getting hit all game, including elbows. In a fair game, we would of doubled our free kick tally, Richarlison would of likely gone for multiple diving offenses... but I doubt they would of had any defenders left either.
Its interesting what's going on with him and Bernard.
I think what's happened is at first they were dribbling real nice, skinning guys easily.
Then the classic PL defensive attributes came into play.
Defenders just coming in and taking them out - still going for the ball, many done skillfully, but positioning to take them out if not getting it.
Frees really mean nothing in all this if the team isn't a threat from set pieces.
And in most games it has taken the ref a while to give yellows.
Noticeably, once a yellow is given, more defensive players are drawn to do the job, thereby sharing the load and lessening the likelihood of a player getting two cards. You can see it in the guy who is already been given the yellow, probably the LB challenging but not tackling, then as Rico or Bernard get round him, in comes the next and takes them out. Then its just a rotation thing. All within the rules with the real threat being nullified.
The advanced inside pass is being well covered off the back of this.
Basically the defence is able to often determine the pattern of play
with crosses, like set pieces, being a willing concession.
So I think both are at the stage of having to learn how to beat all this and it can look pretty ugly.
Silva's going to need to mastermind something,
and if they could just score scoring off a few set pieces might get things rolling back in the right direction.
