'Bosses to blame' for bad tackles

Zamora faces missing much of the season after breaking his leg

Danny Murphy has urged managers to take responsibility for their players after what he termed a series of "ridiculous" and "brainless" tackles.

"They can say it's effective and they have got to win games," said the 33-year-old Fulham captain.

"But the fact is the managers are sending out their players so pumped up there are inevitably going to be problems [in games].

"Your manager dictates what your players do and how you behave."

On 11 September, Murphy's Fulham team-mate Bobby Zamora suffered a broken leg in a challenge by Wolves' Karl Henry, who was also fined two weeks' wages by his club following his tackle on Wigan's Jordi Gomez last Saturday.

Cottagers boss Mark Hughes criticised Stoke's Andy Wilkinson for a reckless tackle on Moussa Dembele in the Carling Cup.

And Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa will also miss most of the season after breaking his leg after a strong challenge from Nigel De Jong during Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Manchester City.

"Every ship has a captain and that's the manager who is in charge," added Murphy.

"You get managers who are sending their teams out to stop other teams playing, which is happening more and more - the Stokes, Blackburns, Wolves."

Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor has said that reckless tackles are endangering the careers of too many players and Murphy has stressed that there should be tougher sanctions for dangerous tackles - especially for repeat offenders.

Murphy continued: "The pace in which some players go into tackles now is ridiculous. There's no brains involved in the players who are doing that.

"I don't believe players are going out to break another player's leg but there has to be some logic and intelligence involved.

"If you are going at someone at a certain pace and you don't get it right you are going to hurt them.

"Players should be culpable for that, in terms of punishment I don't know what - but they need to show a little bit more intelligence, especially the ones who are doing it repeatedly."

However, Everton skipper Phil Neville, who was also speaking at the conference, has stated that tackling was much harder when he started his career in the 1990s.

"Ten or 15 years ago when I was faced with a tricky left winger the first thing I had to do was boot him up in the air," commented Neville.

"I don't think we tackle as hard as we used to. Tackling is part of the game, we just need to outlaw the two-footed challenge that has crept into the game."

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