Accepted truths of football that are wrong

B10P

Well-Known Member
My top 3 accepted truths in football that I'm calling bullshit on.

(1) Gordon Banks' save from Pele was the best ever
Nah, there's probably a save every month as good as that nowadays. David de Gea alone probably makes 5 saves a season as good as that.

(2) Spitting on an opponent is the worst thing you can do
It's not nice, and anyone that does it deserves a punch in the face in return, but what Roy Keane did to Alf Inge Haaland - intentionally injuring him to end his career - is much worse.

(3) You're more likely to concede a goal after just scoring
I don't know if this is true but I think it's just the 1 time in 10 it happens people notice. I'd be very surprised if it's statistically true that in the 5 minutes after a goal you're more likely to concede.

What accepted truths of football do you think are wrong?
 
It's totally fine to kick players, dive, cheat - loads of football is just educated cheating.

It's not a football teams job to entertain - more so neutrals at home watching a game on TV with no investment in the match - folks who watch Newcastle v Southampton and expect to be entertained have no concept of how sport works.

Refs should manage games in context within reason - a foul in a Rangers v Celtic game should be judged a bit different in a Rangers v Hamilton game
 
Very few teams mix up style and tactics.

Waburton was mocked and ridiculed for Plan B being doing Plan A better - that applies to about 99% of football teams.

if you have a Plan B all you are doing is spending less time working on Plan A in training - the majority of training is repetition, drilling in structures and building muscle memory to take to games - a team who can transition from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 is mostly likely equally bad at both rather than good at both.
 
Mark Robins saved Alex Ferguson's job by hitting the winner in the FA Cup at Forest.

Martin Edwards has denied it for years that Ferguson's job hinged on that result.
 
It's old but it's still gold.

"If he was 10 years younger Morvick would have been a top player"

He literally WAS 10 years younger and played in France.
 
Only head injuries require play to be stopped, this isn’t correct it is solely the referees decision on how serious he thinks an injury is.

Also “last man” fouls, but that seems to be dying out thankfully.

There’s tonnes of rules commentators and pundits get wrong regularly, the basic refereeing course should be a requirement you’d think for anyone actually paid to talk about the sport.
 
2-0, the most dangerous scoreline in football.

or

'he's almost hit that too well Clive'
 
How playing Wednesday in Europe then on a Saturday is fine, but the Europa League Thursday night then having to play on a Sunday is brutal

Never understood clubs and pundits who say this. Recovery time is the same
 
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Not sure if this is universally accepted but the whole "playing against 10 men is harder than playing against 11".
Think this one can be true as teams will generally become more compact and sit back more making it harder to break them down and the players on the park raise their game a bit also to make up the loss
 
Michael Owen's "wonder goal" against Argentina in France 98. The single most over-rated goal in the history of the World Cup. He only actually attacks and beats two players. It wasn't even the best goal of that GAME - Zanetti's equaliser to make it 2-2 was a fantastic set piece.

The Owen strike was a good goal made even more impressive by the fact he was so young at the time - but it has been in no way deserving of the footballing immortality that has been bestowed upon it.
 
Bad refereeing decisions even themselves out in the course of a season. Well after this season I can’t wait for these decisions to start going our way. Load of bollocks.
 
How playing Wednesday in Europe then on a Saturday is fine, but the Europa League Thursday night then having to play on a Sunday is brutal

Never understood clubs and pundits who say this. Recovery time is the same

My understanding is that it's to do with the players not getting time with their kids - Wednesday/Saturday gives them Sunday with the kids, but Thursday/Sunday usually has players training on Saturday.
 
That when a player goes down in a dangerous area they should either be awarded a free kick/penalty or be booked for diving. It does my tits in the amount of pundits that still don't get that the ref can simply think it was neither a foul or a dive.

Probably a more controversial one but I never thought David Beckham was world class.
 
Man United have hardly any fans in Manchester. Absolute pish.
Having lived for 8 years in Manchester, all over the city, I concur. It is nonsense.

As for generally accepted truths that are wrong, playing a second leg at home in a two-legged tie is best. Rangers played Bremen away, Sporting away and Fiorentina away second en-route to Manchester and Liverpool played Porto, city and Roma away last year yet also reached the CL final.
 
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