Inform
McLeish warns Benitez over diving
11th March 2010
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has warned recalled striker Christian Benitez to cut out the diving ahead of Saturday's home meeting with Everton.
The Ecuador international made an impressive return to the starting line-up in the midweek 2-1 win at Portsmouth which lifted City in eighth spot in the Barclays Premier League.
But he blotted his copybook by going to ground too easily, picking up a yellow card, and McLeish fears such actions will be looked upon unfavourably by referees in future.
The former Scotland boss said: "Christian went down the other night and the referee quite rightly said it was a dive and he was spot on. Christian has got to learn the culture here and that we frown upon things like that. He has to stay on his feet.
"He will now have to stay on his feet because the next time he gets clipped I'm sure the referee will say 'We've seen him diving and I'll book him for that'.
"Hopefully referees will treat Christian fairly but I'm certainly going to have a word with him about that situation. You don't dive."
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| 3:00, Sat 13th Mar | ||
| Birmingham | v | Everton |
| 3:00, Sat 20th Mar | ||
| Sunderland | v | Birmingham |
| 8:00, Wed 24th Mar | ||
| Blackburn | v | Birmingham |
| 3:00, Sat 27th Mar | ||
| Birmingham | v | Arsenal |
| 3:00, Sat 3rd Apr | ||
| Birmingham | v | Liverpool |
| 7:45, Tue 9th Mar | ||||
| Portsmouth | 0 | v | 0 | Birmingham |
| 3:00, Sat 27th Feb | ||||
| Birmingham | 0 | v | 0 | Wigan |
| 3:00, Sun 21st Feb | ||||
| Fulham | 0 | v | 0 | Birmingham |
| 7:45, Wed 10th Feb | ||||
| West Ham | 0 | v | 0 | Birmingham |
| 1:30, Sun 7th Feb | ||||
| Birmingham | 0 | v | 0 | Wolverhampton |
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Maik Taylor |
| 2 | Stephen Carr |
| 3 | David Murphy |
| 4 | Lee Bowyer |
| 5 | Martin Taylor |
| 6 | Liam Ridgewell |
| 7 | Sebastian Larsson |
| 8 | Garry O'Connor |
| 9 | Kevin Phillips |
| 10 | Cameron Jerome |
| 11 | Christian Benitez |
| 12 | Barry Ferguson |
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| 13 | Colin Doyle |
| 14 | Roger Johnson |
| 15 | Scott Dann |
| 16 | James McFadden |
| 17 | Michel |
| 17 | Giovanny Espinoza |
| 17 | Michael Madera |
| 18 | Keith Fahey |
| 19 | Gary McSheffrey |
| 20 | Franck Queudrue |
| 21 | Stuart Parnaby |
| 22 | Damien Johnson |
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| 23 | Marcus Bent |
| 24 | James O'Shea |
| 25 | Joe Hart |
| 26 | Lee Carsley |
| 27 | Gregory Vignal |
| 28 | Teemu Tainio |
| 29 | Ashley Sammons |
| 30 | Daniel Preston |
| 31 | Jordon Mutch |
| 32 | Jake Jervis |
| 32 | Robin Shroot |
| 33 | Craig Gardner |
| Other Players | |
|---|---|
| Jared Wilson |
