Chris Sutton

Ok. My memory was uncontrolled, studs to the face with a straight leg was always a red, regardless of intent.

Might be some rare edge cases, where the keeper threw himself into the area for instance, but that's my memory.

I could be mis-remembering.

 

And I’m pretty sure you could see his boot shape exiting his back. I can remember pundits debating it and thinking * man, that was horrendous of course it’s a red

Dutch were animals that game man. Then they brought on Braafheid

 

Hart basically does do that, though. It was very brave of him.

 

Totally agree. The one last night, though, if you watch the replay, he bends his leg and tries to lessen the impact once he realises he's going to hit Hart. If he'd gone through with no proverbials given like De Jong, it would have been incredibly dangerous for Hart and I would be calling for a lengthy ban never mind a red.

 

If you watch the replay very carefully, you can see the sole of his boot/studs smashes into his jaw mate

 

Probably my description of the edge cases I was trying to describe isn't good enough, apologies.

I think Hart goes to make the save, which he is entitled to do, nothing closely he does is endangering the other player, not true the other way round. But yes very brave.

 

I know that. It's still true that he tries to pull it, though. I do think that is a consideration.

I think the fact that Hart didn't complain about the yellow and the guy didn't complain about the red speaks to the fact that both points of view are reasonable here.

 

I mean he was choosing to endanger himself. I used to play in goals as a kid (school teams and kickabouts) and I used to do that kind of thing as I thought I was going to live forever. After the age of about 25 when the penny finally started to drop, no way would I have done what Hart did. If that guy is playing against Craig Gordon, he scores and gets his team back in the game.

 

Mate somebody lunges in studs first and gets a leg it’s a red.

It wasn’t malicious, but it was dangerous play, and no refs giving a booking for that.

 

It’s a blatant red. You can’t make a studs up challenge into someone’s face and not get sent off.

Accidental or not, it doesn’t matter.

 

That's professional keepers jobs though. If Hart hadn't went for it he shouldn't be in goals, brave or not thats 100% his job.

The refs job is to punish anyone who endangers him doing it, which he did.

 

Was it dangerous or reckless? What I mean by this is that he didn't know Hart was going to be there!

 

Studs up, red card. If he wanted to avoid, keep studs down and its not a red. Its an easy destination to make. Go toe in to score fine. Go studs in to score, take that risk.

 

It was dangerous, as you can see with how he caught Hart. That was reckless.

If it hit him on the hip it’d still be a red, full flat studs to his face but? Aye, red.

 

In this context is that not just semantics? He was out of control and lunging with studs up. As soon as his action endangers a fellow professional then red card.

If he gets lucky and no one challenges for it he would likely have gotten away with it, and possibly scored. But that's not what happened.

 

As soon as it endangers a fellow professional it’s dangerous play.

Can’t breathe on a keeper never mind stud him in the face

 

OK, well I guess we see different things. I see a guy lunging for the ball in the box in good faith, like strikers often seem to do (IMO), who tries to pull out when he sees where Hart is but still clatters him. You guys see a player indulging in dangerous play. I guess at this point, we just agree to disagree.

 

Do you seriously not think its dangerous to stud a player in the face?

 

I think it's dangerous, yes. Where we differ is that I think the action the player took is not usually dangerous and taken by other players without adverse consequences quite often and that the player didn't know it was going to be dangerous when he took it. For me (and I get that you don't agree), it just seems a little unfair that players can score goals by doing this and get lauded but that on this occasion it resulted in hitting Hart in the face and a red card.

The rules are the rules and you are probably right; but I don't like it and I wish it had been a yellow.

 

Ahh that’s where the mix up is, it doesn’t matter if he didn’t know if what he was doing was dangerous, intent doesn’t matter.


It matters if it is or not.