re: Liverpool FC 2013/2014 - Season Long Thread

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‘He now has a reputation for going down easily… He doesn’t get the rub of the green from officials, there’s absolutely no question.’
A further week, after a match against Stoke, his conviction had hardened: ‘There seems to be one set of rules for Luis and another set for everyone else… the vilification of Luis is both wrong and unfair.’
Three months later, the ‘vilified’ Suarez helpfully admitted he had in fact dived ‘because we were drawing at home and we needed anything to win it’.

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In January this year, Suarez clearly handled before scoring in an FA Cup tie at Mansfield. Rodgers watched the damning replay, declined to criticise the cheating and concluded: ‘It’s not deliberate, as it’s pushed up and hit his hand. It’s up to the officials to decide. That’s why they get paid as officials.’

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Then in March, Rodgers announced that Suarez had changed for the better as a player and a person. ‘This is a guy who is trying to turn around his life and adapt to the culture,’ he said.
A month later, the reformed character sunk his teeth into the Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. Rodgers was ‘bitterly disappointed’, but not by the offence. ‘It’s the severity of the ban that has hurt most,’ he said. And he added: ‘If you look at South American players, they do whatever it takes to win. This is the way they have been brought up. To fight for their lives.’

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