Chris Sutton ripped into Newcastle United attacker Miguel Almiron after he dived in Paraguay’s friendly clash with Serbia on Thursday.
The 25-year-old Magpies attacker received a second yellow card for simulation in the 54th minute of Paraguay’s 1-0 loss to Serbia, and Sutton alongside Alistair Bruce-Ball looked back on the worst dives of the international break on Sunday.
The BBC pundit declared Almiron this week’s winner of the station’s ‘simulation game’, which is meant to highlight the worst dives of the week in order to kick diving out of football, and proceded to slam the Magpies attacker.
“Well, Miguel Almiron has more dives than goals this season, no he’s not scored, I’ll say Almiron, he goes top of the table, you’re better than that Almiron,” said Sutton on Sunday’s BBC 606 (October 13, 51:05 min mark on listen again).
OPINION
Sutton is completely spot-on to call out Almiron’s red card for diving for a few reasons. Firstly, the 25-year-old isn’t helping himself as receiving his marching orders isn’t exactly going to help him build up any confidence and get any sort of goalscoring form going, as he can’t score from the sidelines. Secondly, getting sent off for diving, which is deliberate cheating, is just embarrassing and puts him as well as Newcastle to a degree in a bad light. Thirdly, Sutton went on to acknowledge that while he’s only played the simulation game 11 times this season, Almiron has won the game twice, which suggests he is prone to diving rather than it being a one-off, therefore someone needs to make it clear that he can’t be throwing himself to the ground needlessly. While Almiron clearly works hard for Steve Bruce’s side, he is lively given he has averaged 1.4 shots per game across his eight league outings this season (Source: WhoScored), he hasn’t delivered the goods at St James Park thus far as he hasn’t registered a goal or an assist. So the last thing he should be doing is making questionable decisions, that just make you wonder further if he is the right person to help lead the Magpies’ frontline.
