Mastering the darkish arts in soccer is seemingly one thing that goes hand-in-hand with success.
Consider a few of the nice Premier League groups and so they’ve all the time had gamers who had been nasty to play in opposition to, however knew the right way to tread the road completely.
Roy Keane at Manchester United was an knowledgeable, together with Patrick Vieira at Arsenal too.
Extra just lately, Fernandinho and Rodri have been the masters behind Man Metropolis’s success.
talkSPORT’s very personal Gabby Agbonlahor, the Aston Villa legend, has come up in opposition to a number of gamers who had been horrible to play in opposition to.
However how do rivals attempt to get in your head on the pitch? Gabby revealed all on a number of methods individuals would use.
“There’s instances when one thing private about you is out within the information and gamers use that in opposition to you.
“Or they may hear one thing a few associate and use that in opposition to gamers. It is fairly brutal on the market.”
Other than the verbal abuse, there are additionally bodily methods to tame an opponent.
He added: “Folks would step in your Achilles from the again with the massive studs you used to play with.
“It was nothing dangerous, however the refs aren’t going to see that. Just a little knee within the hamstring too.
“VAR again then would have had a subject day with pink playing cards in all places. Folks would elbow you whereas going up for a header and stamp in your toes when it was chilly and make it worse.”
When it comes to the worst gamers Agbonlahor performed in opposition to, it was a Newcastle hero that was among the many worst.
“I performed Underneath-21s with Steven Taylor, however he would pinch me on a regular basis on the pitch, in every single place.
“He’d pinch your again when he stood behind you, in between your ribs, pinch on the again of your neck. You are like ‘oh simply cease’ however again then it was one thing that you just did not actually see on the cameras and acquired away with.
“You are near stamping again on him and should you do that you are the one who will get pink carded.”
The Aston Villa legend, who scored 74 Premier League targets, additionally namedropped a number of different gamers who had been well-known for his or her antics.
He continued: “Joey Barton was one, he was a trash-talker and was all the time chirpy. Nemanja Vidic as effectively was typically a trash-talker, however there’s fairly a number of others too like Robbie Savage who would wind a whole lot of gamers up.
“Adam Lallana too, probably not to me however to teammates, however it’s the darkish arts. It is what you do to attempt to get in somebody’s head, get them to foul you, get despatched off. It is all about taking part in the sport.”
Agbonlahor himself was not the harmless sufferer in all this both, he had a number of methods that he revealed can be his favourites.
“I used to attend for a defender to be working in direction of the ball, particularly in the event that they had been near the touchline, and I might shoulder barge so that they fell into the promoting board.
“I used to get a whole lot of bookings in my profession for issues like that.
“I identical to tackling. I like kicking individuals. I keep in mind smashing Danny Rose, my mate. I simply love kicking individuals and attempting to get a response from the defenders so that they kick me after which they get despatched off.”
The brand new talkSPORT match centre

Sustain-to-date with all the most recent soccer fixtures, outcomes and standings in our new match centre.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
Information Abstract:
- Gabby Agbonlahor: Manchester United and Liverpool stars had been masters of the darkish arts, however I hated taking part in Newcastle legend essentially the most
- Examine all information and articles from the most recent Football updates.