Adrian Durham took a dig at Manchester City star Fernandinho by moaning about how the midfielder regularly avoided getting booked.
The broadcaster claimed that the 33-year-old was a fouling machine who was always making “niggly” fouls to stop opponents in their tracks.
Durham claimed that Fernandinho somehow avoided getting yellow cards as early as he should in games and that this trait of his infuriates his opponents.
“Fernandinho is a fouling machine, but he doesn’t get booked when he should.”
“There’s a team ethic to foul Hazard, these are the dark arts I’m on about.”@talkSPORTDrive asks if the dark arts are wrong or just a part of football ?? pic.twitter.com/ZAxNptamDV
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 20, 2019
“Fernandinho his little fouls all the time are part of what Manchester City do,” said Durham on talkSPORT on Wednesday in a clip uploaded to their Twitter account.
“There’s lot to admire about Man City but he is a fouling machine, but somehow and I’m not quite sure how he does this but he doesn’t get booked as perhaps as early as he should get booked.
“And it infuriates opposing fans and infuriates opposing players as well, there will be little niggly fouls here and there that actually do stop opponents going forward.”
OPINION
Fernandinho’s job is to break up the play and sometimes he mistimes his tackles. The midfield enforcer is a key part of Pep Guardiola’s side but to call him a fouling machine seems a little insulting. While the 33-year-old does make countless fouls due to the role he plays in, he’s much more than that. By just focusing on that one trait of his, it overlooks the fact Fernandinho is a quality player. While Durham uses the Man City star to argue his point that football just allows players to get away with the sort of niggly fouls the player makes, he could have cited more examples. So many players are guilty of what he is accusing Fernandinho of doing and by putting the spotlight solely on the midfielder it’s a little harsh. Also Fernandinho does pick up his fair share of yellow cards and you feel if he is booked at the rate Durham wants him to be, the midfielder will always be suspended.