Wake up time for Luis Suarez

In recent days, Luis Suarez’s so called diving is making more news than the results of Liverpool. After each match of Liverpool, opposition players and manager start making comments about Suarez’s false play and diving. In most of the cases they speak the truth, but not necessarily always the truth.

Believe it or not, but it’s not easy for any defender in the Premier League to cope with the smart footwork of Luis Suarez. In most cases, he is successful in beating the defensive line of the opposition team. Only he is the one to be blamed for not converting it into goals.

His clean footwork and trickery is too hot to handle for the players, which obviously leads to frustration in the defender’s mind and therein lies the problem with Suarez. He is not the one who will keep it cool when words or rusty challenges come to him. He always responds word by word and tackle by tackle.

In the era of modern football, diving is becoming a more frequent practice in games, which is obviously not a good thing for the sport. But one thing is notable, after each dive whenever the media asks the manager about the dive; they either come out in support of the player or say that they have not seen the incident. It’s obvious, because they don’t want to lose the services of their quality players.

For Luis Suarez, his career is filled with so many incidents which obviously leave a bad impression in everyone’s mind. His infamous handball incident at the 2010 World Cup made him the villain for Ghana but a hero for Uruguay. His EPL debut season was also full of controversies. First the racism comments on Evra, then offensive gestures against the Fulham fans, and the infamous hand shake saga at Old Trafford. But how would you feel when you are asked to shake the hand of a person because of whom you have been punished?

Brendan Rodgers says that Suarez is paying the price of his reputation. But the important thing is that the reputation has been created by Suarez himself. He is the one to blame for the scenario which he is facing now in each game. Everyone knows that he goes down very quickly even at the slightest touch (in some cases without any touch). But there also cases where he has been at the receiving end of nasty challenges. Be it Leon Barnett of Norwich who intentionally hammered Suarez in his back and even accused Suarez of diving; or Robert Huth of Stoke who stamped on Suarez’s chest. In all the incidents, Suarez was at the receiving end but both calls went against him. This is just because of his reputation as a bad boy.

The image of Suarez as a bad boy goes against him in most of the cases. To minimize that, he should stop going down frequently. It will obviously take time to change the mentality of the referees and the spectators of the game. But sooner or later, they will understand that Suarez is not always wrong or a diver.

What Suarez has now is the good support of his team mates, LFC supporters and most importantly, the manager. During the racism saga, the world saw that LFC stood for Suarez and backed him thoroughly. But the scenario will not be the same if he keeps going down easily. Sooner or later, the manager will also have to stop supporting Suarez if he continues his foul play.

So the only option Suarez is left with is to try to stand on his feet, instead of landing on his back. Sooner or later, the referees would be forced to give the right decision when he is fouled, because then they will not have the chance to cover up their mistakes by pointing towards Suarez’s bad boy image.

I know it will take time, but Suarez has to live the hard life if he wants to achieve something at Anfield. His commitment to Liverpool is never doubted by anyone. Everyone knows he is a class player, but with that there is always a remark about his ‘classless’ acts.