CHELSEA ASSISTANT MANAGER Steve Holland says the club’s players are not diving, but attempting to avoid “career-ending tackles”.
The Blues have had several players yellow-carded for simulation this season but Jose Mourinho’s Number 2 feels that disproportionate attention is given to them rather than those guilty of reckless challenges.
Holland cited a tackle on Eden Hazard from Phil Bardsley of Stoke City in Chelsea’s 2-0 win on 22 December as an example of something that should get closer attention.
“Watching the replays five times to highlight how a player has spent more time in the air than he should’ve done is not a difficult job,” Holland told reporters, “but look at Hazard at Stoke. If he doesn’t see that tackle coming and get his studs up, that finishes his career.
“When players anticipate challenges they try to get their feet off the ground. That makes it very difficult for referees.
“Eden just gets on with it. He’s incredible, with the stick he takes, but if he gets up straight away after being whacked, that could discourage a referee from taking action against a player who is trying to take him out.
“Five minutes later he gets whacked again because the player hasn’t got a yellow card.
“In the Hull game [Filipe] Luis was on the receiving end of a tackle [from Tom Huddlestone]. Those two tackles were career-ending tackles if they connected, no doubt, yet we spend two or three days talking about how long a player has spent in the air rather than what is done about the perpetrators of those challenges. Where’s the logic in that?”
Mourinho has been slapped with an FA charge after suggesting there is a “campaign” against Chelsea following a number of bookings for diving issued to Blues players.
