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Kane and unsporting tactics?
at 17:37 13 Jul 2021

OK, I can't deny it - Kane has been a top prem striker for a few years and seems ready to easily overtake Rooney's England goal record.
Also - he had a poor tournament - seemed tired, slow, off the mark, but that is not my reason for posting.
May be I have not been watching as much football as I used to but Kane to me is the epitome of unsporting behaviour in England right now. Not because he is the worst at it (he is not by far) but because he has the skill not to resort to certain tactics and as England captain eyes are on him.
Namely, that trawling lagging foot he leaves behind whenever a defender comes near to try and be contacted and if he is touched - even slightly, that fast drawing up of feet and legs so that he does go down then clutches the same place on his shin as if to say to the ref 'I've been fouled - I demand a free kick'.

Maybe I just don't see it in others, maybe I see it in him more given his high profile in the England team and that defenders always close him down and try a tackle.

My point is - if you are such a good player - beat the defence. Why resort to unsportsmanlike conduct with all the pretense? I get little joy in scoring from a free kick that's been unfairly given due to the attacking player being a soft playactor.

Then there is that other dubious tactic of his: in a club game against Brighton in the season he was 'challenging' for a high ball with Lallana. Lallana went up and Kane bent over and backed into him so that when he came down he would land on Kane and make it look like Kane had been fouled. If that was rugby, he would be off. He does it on numerous occasions. I may have ranted about it here at the time. I am staggered that refs still fall for it or that rules have not been changed to stop this. In the Lallana case I would have booked or sent off Kane and given a free kick to Brighton (someone will tell me I would have breached rules as ref in that instance!)

Saturday night I watched the replay of the 1966 final - I only found it when extra time was starting. You saw harsher tackles than Kane goes down from and players just got up and went on with the game. No tell-tale arms up from the culprit that basically says they knew what they were doing, and no complaints, pretending injury, and rolling around to try and get a free kick. The foul happened, the innocent guy got up and resumed his position and the ref gave a free kick - no histrionics.

It's high time this behaviour was stamped out. Let's see fellas play the game and go down only if they can't stay up. I did see a few times in the final that Sterling seemed to go on further than a tackle - maybe because he could and fancied a chance at scoring. That seemed out of character with recent events.

I was pleased to see the standard of refereeing and that many didn't fall for this acting, unlike the premiership refs.

Hey ho, that's off my chest now.

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Tinman

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