Gamesmanship or Cheating?

After watching the Stoke Vs West ham Game on Monday night I couldn’t help but think to myself, the way Stoke play is infuriating to watch and it made me realise just how much they got away with on Monday night. Just for clarification I am not talking about Stoke’s style of play, which is in essence long ball football up to Peter Crouch with bits of passing mixed in and around it; I’m talking about their infuriating time wasting and ‘gamesmanship’, if you can call it that.

Monday night Stoke went 1-0 up very early on and from then on did play very well for the first 45 minutes to their credit, but, it took Begovic around 30-45 seconds to take every goal kick, every player around 30-45 seconds to take every free kick or throw-in. Yes other teams do it, yes it is a famous footballing tactic, but after 10 minutes? Tony Pulis does say that he and his Stoke side like to make things difficult and with their players they can do this. Players such as Robert Huth, Ryan Shawcross, Steven N’zonzi and John Walters are always up for a fight and make life difficult for even the top sides in the Premier League. The point I’m trying to make here is if Stoke weren’t given the opportunity to ‘time waste’ from ten minutes into a game then maybe they wouldn’t do it and would be more known for being a tough side than, for lack of a better phrase, ‘a bunch of time wasters’.

Stoke fans may disagree with this but I’m sure other fans from around the league have noticed the same and I am not alone. For Stoke I wish it stopped at time wasting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Monday night being my prime example again saw Andy Carroll indulged into what can only be described as a full on wrestling brawl with Ryan Shawcross. Every single corner taken, SKY showed footage of Shawcross grappling Carroll and on some occasions pulling him to the floor. Shawcross wasn’t the only one. Huth and James Tomkins and N’zonzi and Reid were all shown on several occasions being grappled by their defender. Again I know it goes on elsewhere in the League but from what I’ve seen in the past and what I saw Monday night Stoke give them selves a bad name for it.

Most other places on the field the referee gives a foul, but in the box he’s more likely to give a foul against the attacker than the defender. Why does this happen? I could be completely wrong here and Tony Pulis could be a genius finding a gap to exploit. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds it infuriating to watch and very, very close to cheating

Jack Turner

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