Luis Suárez

[tsb]

Call me an old cynic, but none of his sponsors will drop him.

Yesterday on BBC News they mentioned 888 Poker and Adidas more times than I could count. They use this negative publicity pretty well in these situations.

Same with Coca Cola threatening to pull out of sponsoring the WC. They wont, but it gets their name out as a concerned company.

Then you have the opportunistic stuff whichs proves that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

[EwarWoo]

Then you have the opportunistic stuff whichs proves that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

That pic of him clutching his teeth is horrendous. Despite the scummy act it is mostly an over reaction. However that pic makes me want to punch him in the face.

What a ******.

Still want him to stay but. Don't care if it makes me an hypocrite.

[dom9]

That pic of him clutching his teeth is horrendous. Despite the scummy act it is mostly an over reaction. However that pic makes me want to punch him in the face.

What a ******.

Still want him to stay but. Don't care if it makes me an hypocrite.

I dunno he probably hurt his teeth. It's quite an intricate, risky, high speed manoeuvre in the heat of battle.

[G]

When he's playing somewhere else next season will his 'supporters' be as vocal? As a scorer of goals the bloke is a phenom, as an adult human being he appears to be a bit of an oxygen thief!

Of course not. I'd have thought that obvious. I support him because he plays for us. If he didn't I wouldn't, I make no bones about that. As football fans we are allowed to be one eyed and partisan. Same with United fans worshipping Cantona, Madrid fans and Pepe, Everton fans and Duncan Ferguson. Our player or not I still think the outrage over a bite is over the top compared to some of the **** that goes on on the pitch but if he wasn't ours I wouldn't be saying anything about it.

And oxygen thief is ridiculous, everything written about him says he's a genuinely likeable guy. He just has a problem he isn't controlling very well at times.

[tsb]

That pic of him clutching his teeth is horrendous. Despite the scummy act it is mostly an over reaction. However that pic makes me want to punch him in the face.

What a ******.

Still want him to stay but. Don't care if it makes me an hypocrite.

It doesn't. The pic isn't fantastic but his goals are.

[Slinky Skills]

My brother says he's doing a good job of giving the other PL strikers another 5 game head start.

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/messileftfoot/status/482079079827783680[/ame]

[Shaggy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2669808/Liverpool-tamed-Luis-Suarez-Uruguay-striker-lost-I-getting-back.html

Liverpool had tamed Luis Suarez, but the Uruguay striker has lost it and I can't see him changing

• The 2014 World Cup will be associated with Luis Suarez's bite on Giorgio Chiellini
  
• The incident isn't dissimilar to Harald Schumacher's lunge on Patrick Battiston during the 1982 World Cup
  
• Liverpool may actually be relieved if Real Madrid or Barcelona make a bid for the striker
  
• He should be regarded as one of the finest but he will be known as the one who bites people

By JAMIE CARRAGHER

He will be remembered for ever but that is no compliment. The 2014 World Cup will be associated with Luis Suarez in the same way Spain 1982 is synonymous with Harald Schumacher.

I hardly saw the West Germany goalkeeper play but mention his name and I know immediately he was responsible for the outrageous collision in the semi-final that left France midfielder Patrick Battiston unconscious.

It was one of the most shocking incidents in World Cup history but, unfortunately, Suarez has put himself in that bracket after biting Giorgio Chiellini. Rather than being regarded as one of the finest forwards in the game, he’s now simply known as the one who bites people.

I still find the incident in Natal completely bizarre. I worked with Luis every day for two-and-a-half years at Liverpool and if you spent time in his company at Melwood, you would struggle to believe he was capable of such ridiculous moments.

He’s a quiet lad, in the main. He’s not someone who squares up to people on the training ground if things don’t go his way and he’s not overly-aggressive or a bully. Yes, his desire to win is fierce but that is no different from a lot of top professionals.

As for him needing a ‘mental edge’ to operate at the highest level, that’s nonsense. He is a special footballer because he scores incredible goals, his skill, tremendous physical capabilities and enthusiasm. He pushes himself to the limit but that doesn’t mean we should have to accept moments of madness.

Luis will be distraught today. When he bit Branislav Ivanovic during a 2-2 draw with Chelsea in April 2013, in the days and weeks that followed you could see how much of an impact it had made on him. He was devastated, as was his wife, Sofia.

Do not think, however, I am looking to defend him. I didn’t when he tangled with Ivanovic and I’m not changing my view. Luis’s actions have been disgraceful and it defies belief that he could behave as if he was in a playground once again after everything Liverpool have done for him.

The signs last season had been encouraging. He was booked only six times (compared to 11 times in 2012-13) and benefited from a philosophy Brendan Rodgers calls ‘match management’. He wants players to remain calm and focused at all times.

Dr Steve Peters goes to every Liverpool game for a variety of reasons but part of it is to analyse ‘impulse management’ and he will study how players react in pressure situations. The system worked last year because Liverpool topped the fair play league.

But away from that environment, he has lost focus and if I’m honest, I don’t believe he will change. He will always have that tendency to self-destruct. This latest incident mirrored the ones with Ivanovic and PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal — it was a split-second reaction, instinctive.

Could there be an element he felt he would get away with it?

Think about it: why would you choose to bite someone? When the red mist descends on a footballer, you may expect a punch to be thrown, an elbow to be swung or even a headbutt but if you bite someone, it is virtually impossible to be detected by match officials. No referee will ever see you if you get in close enough and TV pictures may prove inconclusive.

Had these incidents taken place 20 years ago, when there were not so many TV cameras in stadiums, Luis might never have been punished. After all, none of the referees in the games in which he bit Bakkal, Ivanovic and Chiellini sent him off, as neither they nor their assistants saw the crime take place.

But he has been caught and now some questions need to be answered on what the consequences will be for Liverpool, who have done everything they can to help him psychologically by making Dr Peters available to him at all times.

The biggest previous punishment handed out by FIFA, of course, was the eight-game ban imposed on Mauro Tassotti when he broke Luis Enrique’s nose with an elbow at the USA World Cup in 1994 — I maintain a footballer would rather be bitten than have his nose smashed or be left unconscious, like Battiston.

I have thought about it and believe the biggest way to hurt him would have been for FIFA to suspend him for the rest of the World Cup and then ban him for a calendar year, which would rule him out of Uruguay’s Copa America defence in Chile next summer.

People are calling for a worldwide ban but I don’t think Liverpool should be punished. Uruguay didn’t suffer when he served the Ivanovic ban, did they? He missed the first five Barclays Premier League games, during which time Liverpool dropped five points against Swansea and Southampton.

The form Luis was in last year, I’m certain he would have made the difference in those matches and Liverpool would have then won the title.

With Liverpool, his situation is even more complicated. Those who are saying the club should make a stand and drum him out have no grasp on reality because no business would get shot of an £80million asset for nothing or a reduced fee.

Luis is not like Charles Itandje, the Cameroon goalkeeper who was sacked by Liverpool in 2009 after he was caught misbehaving at the Hillsborough Memorial Service. Itandje was no good, had a bad attitude and was never going to play, so getting shot of him was easy to do.

You would never say the same about Luis but there comes a point when enough is enough. You have to wonder whether Barcelona and Real Madrid have been put off by what they saw in Natal but there is no doubt his future will become a massive issue.

Now you get the feeling that Liverpool might actually be relieved if Barcelona or Real come in with a bid that triggers a move. If a lucrative offer arrives in the next few weeks, I am convinced Suarez will be playing his football somewhere else next season.

He has been a magnificent player and that is why Liverpool supporters have staunchly stood by him but even they believe now that this latest controversy is something the club can do without.

And the problem you have with Luis, for all his wonderful gifts, is that this episode is unlikely to be his last.

[Gingawaria]

That pic of him clutching his teeth is horrendous. Despite the scummy act it is mostly an over reaction. However that pic makes me want to punch him in the face.

What a ******.

Still want him to stay but. Don't care if it makes me an hypocrite.

He got a clout in the mouth off Chiellini which is why he was clutching his teeth.

[Shaggy]

He's got a bit of a shiner from that as well.

[Tee]

**** off Carra.

[Alex]

Spot on from Carra there.

Clearly a nice bloke, but cant control himself.

This has happened and we will all move on, but it will always be in the back of my head that ANOTHER 10 game ban is round the corner. What can he do to to change our opinion of that?

[G]

I wonder if his wife is out there with him. She seems to be a calming influence. If he's away from her for a period of time it may be contributing. We managed to keep him in line last season, obviously with Dr Peters help , he's made progress but he's out of whatever environment and help we put in place for him and he's reverted to type.

[Maxiedge]

Obviously, not that bothered.

[BobTheCharmer]

**** off Carra.

Really? Can't argue with anything in the article.