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'Shithousery' puts fans off the game - Kevin Kilbane on World Cup 2018

Off The Ball's Kevin Kilbane believes that World Cup fans are being turned off by the levels of '...
Newstalk
Newstalk

13.52 6 Jul 2018


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'Shithousery'...

'Shithousery' puts fans off the game - Kevin Kilbane on World Cup 2018

Newstalk
Newstalk

13.52 6 Jul 2018


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Off The Ball's Kevin Kilbane believes that World Cup fans are being turned off by the levels of 'shithousery' in Russia this tournament.

Eoin and Dave put it to Kevin that erstwhile practitioners of the shithouse arts, Uruguay, have been remarkably uninvolved during the World Cup.

"Let's wait for this game! You can imagine what's going to happen after saying that!

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"Look at Brazil and Colombia's 'shithousery'. It is annoying when you're watching it. To a casual football fan, or non-football fan, and you are coming and seeing that kind of bravado and all of that on the pitch - it puts you off the game.

"But, in general, we are seeing players that are top class playing great, attacking football. You wish referees could be booking Neymar for the crap that he is pulling or pulling the Colombian players for the crap that they were pulling the other night. You want stronger referees dishing out an early yellow card to put that kind of thing to bed.

"It has happened in past tournaments and it will happen again."

 

Kevin was effusive in his praise for one of the archetypal World Cup shithouses, Luis Suarez, whose Uruguay side face France this afternoon in Nizhny Novgorod. 

"The work rate of Suarez is phenomenal. I said about this team being well-balanced as a squad, and well-drilled, but the key to how they go and press sides is with Suarez. He's the start of the press.

"For all his talent, for how good he has been throughout his career, he has never lost that willingness to work hard. We have seen it happen with so many other players, they get to a level and their work rate drops off ever so slightly and season by season it gets less and less.

"Not with Suarez, it has not been the case with him. We talk about legacy, but we start to realise that Lionel Messi, in many people's eyes, will never be considered the greatest because he will probably never win a World Cup. I don't buy it. But that's the mantle that he has to carry - Diego Maradona is his level.

"You can't necessarily judge these top-class players on what happens at a World Cup. But in many respects, it is in their country where they are being judged."

You can watch OTB AM from 7:45 every weekday morning on our Facebook, YouTube and Periscope channels. If you would like to see more sporting videos, like and subscribe any of our pages or log onto offtheball.com.


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