There was an incident yesterday where Callum Hudson-Odoi ended up getting a lot of stick over, as well as a booking.
He was running at pace into the box and was impeded by two Burnley defenders. The Referee awarded a penalty that was subsequently overturned by VAR, and Hudson-Odoi booked for diving.
To be clear, there was contact, and Hudson-Odoi was running at real pace, which is why he went down. Was it enough to be a penalty? Debatable. But was it a dive? Absolutely not.
Frank Lampard has defended Hudson-Odoi in the incident explaining that he was running at speed and it’s hard to stay up if you get knocked.
He has also pointed out the fact that Ashley Barnes was falling over and claiming free-kicks every time he went up for an aerial challenge. So what’s that about? Not a dive?
Lampard was quick to point this out, as reported by West London Sport.
He said:
“If I felt like it was a dive I would speak to Callum and say that that’s not what we’re about.
“But when you’re moving into the box at pace and cutting across defenders, whether VAR decides it’s a penalty or not is one thing, I thought there were a lot of things going on in the game of people going down under not a lot of contact.
“Their bench wanted everything that was happening. Every time Ashley Barnes has a contest in the air he falls to the ground and they want to get a free-kick to stick it in your box.
“So let’s be clear that these things do still happen all over football. It’s a fast game and people are trying to win.
“If it was a dive I’d address it, for sure. I need to look at it back but I don’t think it’s as clean-cut an argument as that.”
