Play-acting is not only the preserve of Nani and Manchester United

Steven Gerrard?

Can anyone tell me the last time C. Ronaldo waved an imaginery yellow/red card as the writer of this article has suggested.

I'm presuming the author is a liverpool fan? I tend not to comment on articles as the comments innevitable turn into slanging matches by 15 year old but this article is so ridiculously one sided and biased I just couldn't resist. Come on Sportingo, don't tarnish your website with this tripe

My only criticism of Nani is that he fell for the provocation of the Australian - who fouled Nani, squared up to him, put both hands around Nani's face and, from what I saw, dared him to do something about it. It was nasty on Neil's part, and immaturity on Nani's part. But the real bastard was the West Ham player, and the referee played it strictly by the book. It should have been two reds.

I wonder how much football the writer of this article actually watched. Ronaldo recieves many more crunching takles/fouls then Rooney does. In fact without knowning the stats for sure, I wouldnt bet against Ronaldo being one of the, if not the most fouled player in the league. Yet how many yellow cards has Ronaldo recieved for dissent or not "respecting" the referee. How many yellow cards has he recieved for "diving" this season? How many yellow cards has he recieved for waving an imaginery yellow in the ref's face? Why doesnt the writer back his statement up with some stats! In fact one of the most fouled players in the league has only recieved one penalty all season in the league. Thats the real traversty!

u gotta admit, watchin dat was funny

I must apologise. After reading a few of your other articles it appears you're not a liverpool, you actually seem to write many articles on celtic, for which I commend you. However this just makes this article even worse as you should have no real agenda behind it, and have just produce shoddy journalism instead. Hang your head

i find that you are absolutely correct despite perhaps being a liverpool fan because the fact is that i too am a big liverpool fan!!! this has nothing to do with liverpool as everyone knows that ronaldo is immature and is only 23 years old!!! i am sure that he has himself taught nani the art of play-acting as he has been a great actor for more than 5 years now !!! perhaps the death of his father made him like that who knows . i feel sorry for him when he tries to make defenders look foolish as he is himself a fool !!! anyway manure are a one man team now and i sincerely wanted to know how they would play without him in the final as he will get seriously injured against wigan !!! the other manure players are just crap : look at brown, neville, giggs, flethcher, car-rick, hard-greaves, silvestre, vidic, tevez, anderson and so on ....it is ronaldo that makes them look good !!! ronaldo himself said that he will go to real madrid next season as he is fed up in england and with the proposed 60mil P offered it is difficult to resist . i feel that chelsea are very lucky and they will win both the league and the CL as they can buy the refs. the other teams will curse manure that they won't win anything this season for the injustice done !!!! YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE !!!! ronaldo will walk to real madrid !!!! WE HAVE WON IT 18 TIMES !!!!!

Vimal Boodhram... you are taking things too personal, and i think it has made you look a fool instead. Better Grow up!!

......thanks very much for commending my support of Celtic.I am not having a go at Ronaldo, i think he is fantastic and my intention was not to come across as a Liverpool fan.I didn,t mean to use Ronaldo as the main part of the argument.I praised Rooney yes, but perhaps i didn,t praise Ronaldo enough, i thought i had.

Vimal........ you can't be more than 12 years old?? I say this because I believe you do have to be @ least 12 in order to be able to leave comments on this site....... If you dont like the ronaldo in a man u shirt then you must really hate the ronaldo in the portuguese shirt... ....look at the bright side,,,u wont have to face him @ the euro this year. his greatest acting role so far was the kissing of the ball and the penalty taken shortly after...I thought that was an oscar performance.

is this the same ronaldo that CHEATED a penalty against boro that your talking about. the very one that when tackled throws his arms in the air as though nobody should be allowed. i remember real englishmen being up in arms when his cheating and advice for referees got an imature fat muppet sent off in the euro's, brilliant player and an even better cheat. long live manu fans your class!

I have to say that I am quite shocked at the nature of this article. I don't think anyone could have more of a biased approach to this subject than the author of this artle. I am a Manchester United fan and I do admit that what Nani did was 'childish' but what Lucas Neil did was even more 'childish'. I mean, he was screaming at Nani, he had a pinch at Nani, he then pushed him and squared up to him and hit the deck quicker than Rick Waller taking a heart attack from which can only be described as a brush to the face. He instegated it and the fact he got a yellow card shows you that the referee thought he had done something. Yes, Nani was stupid for play acting but Neil was the main culprit, he prompted Nani and hit the floor first with his antics. I just hope that there isn't a strong wind blowing when Neil plays next. I say 'plays next' as it will probably be a while before he recovers from that horrifically knock out of a head butt. I don't even think Ben Affleck could give a harder head butt. That sn't the only flaw of this article. The multiple parts regarding Cristiano Ronaldo were even more laughable. The author had to go back all the way back to the World Cup to show an example of Cristiano Ronaldo flashing a mock card at the referee.2 years ago. Are you kidding me? What i would also like to know is when was the last time Ronaldo actually took a dive? Since that episode in the World Cup, Ronaldo has been nothing but the utmost professional. People always say he goes down alot but watching every Man U match avidly, i would point towards the fact he is the best player in the world and that teams put 2-4 men on him and hack him down every chance they get. Also, he is one of the fastest players in the league, if not World, so when you have a red blooded male who has just been made a fool of chasing Ronaldo, he is always pulling and pushing and leaning into him, also trying to gain an illegal advantage. it's called a professional foul and by the book, should be coutner acted with a yellow card. I honestly can't remember seeing Ronaldo get booked for simulation this season, but i can remember quite a few instances in which his reputation was held before him (Kind of like what the author is doing here), when he had been brutishly brought down. The penalty that was never given at the Nou Camp springs to mind. The penalty that was never given in the FA Cup match against Portsmouth where the defender made no attampt to play the ball, was watching Ronaldo solely and deliberately blocked him off with force, just as Milito did for Barca. Week in, week out, Ronaldo receives brutal tackles from jealous players and he stills faces criticism from in denial Neanderthals for things he did 2 - 4 years ago, when he was an inexperienced player and very young. I would also like to say that, being a Man U supporter, i love Wayne Rooney as he is what the fans all want to see ... Dedication. But he also has been known to take a dive. It is a rare sight but, the temptation is still there. The penalty against Arsenal at Old Trafford against Sol Campbell, Campbell didn't even touch him and he went down. There was another call last week, where Rooney went through, got touched, stayed up and when he couldn't get the ball, he went down but that could have been inbalance. My point is, somewhere down the line, every player has taken a dive and people should stop criticizing Ronaldo because for two years in a row, he has been the best player in the world and he still doesn't get the merit he deserves. I think the author labels him 'good'. Good? The man is a genius. He was already a World Class player last season (as the world rankings support) and he has still improved and taken on all of the stick. He should be credited for being so strong. The amount of harsh tackles he receives in abundance every match is shocking. No wonder he complains to the ref. Another issue is the whole Fernando Torres sentence. I have seen Torres take to the floor many a time. When United played Liverpool, it is all he did, every touch, on the floor, screaming at the ref. And he has done it since joining Liverpool. The fact Benitez keeps calling for protection of Torres shows that he is getting 'fouled' alot. Didier Drogba. Now there is a clown. Did anyone see the amount of time he wasted on the floor in the Champions League match against Liverpool alone? They showed you the clips of it on Soccer A.M and it was absolutely disgusting. He dived more in those two legs than Ronaldo ever has for Man U. Chelsea have a few divers. Every team has a diver or a couple. Why is the emphasis on Manchester United, when we probably have the most honest team in the league? I mean, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, hargreaves, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, they are honest players. I admitted earlier that Ronaldo did go down easily in the past but nowadays, he is as solid as a rock, if he went down all of the time, he wouldn't score so many goals, he wouldn't set so many up, he wouldn't be making fools of every player in the league, he wouldn't be entertaining The World, he wouldn't be winning player titles for being the best around, he wouldn't be going on his runs where he beats 5 + men and stays up to create something. I am not exaggerating that, he does it week in, week out. I just think that the author put his biased views before logic and thought opposing supports would appreciate it because he is jumping on the bandwagon and keeping the hatred going. Those people will obviously say that i am being biased but i admitted he used to go down alot but now, he is the best player in the world, barre none. People can talk about Messi all they want but when they compared the two players with stats on Sky Sports News before the Barca match, Ronaldo was the better player. And another thing, as well as Messi played against us, he also went down easily a few times, like every Barca player did. Every touch, drop to the floor. It is rather annoying when a player like Ronaldo can break records and win title after title for playing so beautifully and he still gets barracked for something he did seasons past. Get over it and get a balanced mind.

did you watch todays game pal, penalty or not? scholes off or not? ronaldo best player in the world after messi (out for a month injured) took the piss out of manu, long post from a half wit. suppose that makes me an a.b.u for replying. sorry. how football has changed.

Did i watch the game? Indeed i did, as i watch every game, pal. Was it a penalty? Probably, it hit him in the arm area but even a couple of commentators said it wasn't hand ball, until they viewed the slow motion replay. So, once again, thats another view made in hind sight. But, wasn't there three penalty shouts for Manchester United against Blackburn? One was even more of a handball claim than Ferdinands 'handball'. Scholes off? No, as i think the first challenge was never a booking, the second was a yellow but the first wasn't. Was it not a penalty for Scholes later on? Did you miss that one? Probably say Scholes shouldn't have been on the pitch, but, he was, so, my point is valid. Ronaldo is the best player in the World. Messi played well against Man U, so what? That makes him the best?. He is a young kid, i would expect him to perform well after being out, seeing as he would have trained and he is obviously fit with being so young, i could say that Rooney was out for months when he came to Man U and scored a hat trick on his debut, in the Champions League. Does that make him the best fo r that period? I could name lots of matches when Ronaldo ripped teams apart, i mean, he has been doing it all season long. He didn't even score his first goal of the season till the 8th match and still took everyone out of the picture. Now, that is class. When they compared the European stats between Messi and Ronaldo on Sky Sports, Ronaldo had the better stats. So, am i right, or are you? To call me half witted, is quite half witted of yourself too. I think my post had a valid point and you come back with questions from the Wigan match? Anyone can reply to my post, it is an opinion, why would the length have anything to do with it? There is no limit and i had a few points to make, seeing as the article had a few points. The fact i typed out the longest post shouldn't change my point behind it. I apologise for actually paying attention and being detailed, we can't all be as loose as you, Mr Ferguson. What would i know, though? I'm just a half wit, unlike you, who is obviously intelligent beyond the grasps of comprehension. You got me, Al. You really did. How will i ever recover from such a brutal point?