Deco – Good at Football, Bad at Tackling

Deco introduced himself to the Premier League with a brilliant display for Chelsea against Portsmouth. Playing alongside Joe Cole and behind Nicolas Anelka he had the playmaker thing down pat, making Cheslea look fluid than in recent seasons and capping the whole thing was a goal.

But he also introduced himself to Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra by nearly breaking his leg in half. If you watch around the 1:15 mark of the above video, you’ll see Deco put his foot through Diarra’s knee in a challenge that was nowhere neat the ball and had the potential to be very very nasty.

Not sure if Deco was just trying to prove he could hang with in the rough kids in the Premier League, or whether it was just a bit of a clumsy effort gone wrong, but when we all freaked out over the mess Martin Taylor made of Eduardo’s shin last year and called for stiffer penalties for nasty tackles, this is surely exactly the sort of thing we were talking about. Just because Diarra was OK, doesn’t mean this wasn’t bad.

Let’s hope this was just a one off from Deco, because I definitely enjoy watching the guy score beautiful goals like Chelsea’s fourth than putting his studs into someone’s knee cap.

Some Related Stories:

Category: English Premier League