Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Diving crusade leaves Sean Dyche on very thin ice
If taking a stance against cheating means taking aim at diving, then it must also involve confronting all the other forms of cheating that take place week-in and week-out.
Sean Dyche’s one-man crusade against diving took another turn last weekend. In re-opening an old debate, the Burnley manager is treading dangerous ground.
Dyche is engaging and thoughtful when he speaks. He was keen to point out that his latest complaint about diving, following Callum Hudson-Odoi’s yellow card in the Clarets’ home defeat to Chelsea should not take anything away from the performance of Frank Lampard’s side.
But there was little doubt about what he thought of Hudson-Odoi’s actions.
“I can’t stand it, these are young players diving all over the place,” he said during his post-match briefings.
“The Premier League has got to do something about it.
“There’s no contact at all. Everyone speaks to me about ‘respect the referees, respect the game’.
“Well, respect what the game is. Respect what it actually stands for. We got told at the beginning of the season by the Premier League that the worst you can get is a yellow card, so everyone has a chance to cheat once a game and they’re not going to get sent off.
“It’s shambolic how people are diving all over the place. I get shot down for saying this, but I’m amazed, respect the game, that’s what people should be doing.”
Two points instantly stood out from those words.
Firstly, Hudson-Odoi may have been quick to go hit the ground but there was definitely contact – however minimal – from Matthew Lowton when the Chelsea player went past James Tarkowski in the Burnley box. Lampard was diplomatic when he spoke in midweek about the incident, defending his player without condemning Dyche.
This column is being penned before Dyche’s latest pre-match press conference so he may well have a different take on the challenge by now, but that is not the important issue here.
It is the second point he makes that, “everyone has a chance to cheat once a game and they’re not going to get sent off” which needs addressing.
That is not just applicable to diving, it is the same for every bookable offence. Every foul is a form of cheating. For simplicity, let us just stick to the yellow card punishment Dyche is referring to. Last Saturday, Burnley received three yellow cards to Chelsea’s two. They cheated more than Chelsea.
Ten minutes before the Hudson-Odoi incident Jeff Hendrick was cautioned for catching Mateo Kovacic late.
A minute later Willian slipped a pass out to Reece James, Eric Pieters slid in late and caught the teenager unfairly.
The third yellow card arrived when substitute Robbie Brady fouled Olivier Giroud. What makes these offences any worse than a dive? They are fouls committed with the intent of gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent.
What makes cheating in plain sight any more noble than a bit of hoodwinking on the sly?
Back in August, after a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal, Dyche was speaking with the same fervour as he did last Saturday.
“I don’t know another professional sport, or any sport, where they tell you that you can cheat once a game and just get a warning,” he added.
“I find that really peculiar. It’s unacceptable, simple as that. The game’s in a really poor state for people literally falling on the floor.
“No-one else seems bothered about it. I’m going to answer honestly and authentically.
“My son has been playing since he was eight and I’ve seen it all the time on parks pitches and academies. It’s grown to a level where it’s every week now.”
By his own admission, then, Dyche is the self-appointed moral arbiter of this issue as nobody else is willing to walk his path. And he is dead right to point to the bad example being set by those who dive. It has filtered through to our parks pitches on Sunday mornings and down to youth football.
But plenty worse takes place on those pitches. Writing from the position of someone who never graduated further than parks pitches, and spent far too many Sundays trudging around them, there are many violent and cynical tackles that ought to be targeted ahead of diving.
Far better to have a Sunday League result ruined on Hackney Marshes by an opponent buying a penalty with a shoddy dive than to be taken out waist-high by a flying boot or two. And Wilfred Zaha would certainly agree.
The day after the Hudson-Odoi incident, Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi cynically manhandled Zaha to the ground with what could best be described as a ‘rugby tackle’ as the Crystal Palace winger went in search of an added-time winner for his team. Yellow card.
Zaha is used to this. He is regularly on the wrong end of far worse challenges than Sunday’s mildly farcical one, having had his ankles and shins battered time and again during a long Premier League career.
“I had to do it,” said Guendouzi afterwards. As if to say nothing less would be expected of him. Taking one for the team in such a manner always earns deferential acknowledgement from ex-pros in the punditry seat.
Dyche is from this school.
“I’m not talking about gamesmanship and cleverness of players – that’s been there forever,” he continued.
“I was a centre-half, and not a very good one, and if a centre-forward goes past me and I clip his ankles and he goes down, that’s my fault and I accept that.”
There, in a nutshell, is the problem. Cheating is cheating.
Having a preference for one particular version over another is not an option.
