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Suarez has been punished and rightly so

Liverpool's Luis Suarez is seen during his team's 2-2 draw against Chelsea in their English Premier League soccer match at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England, Sunday April 21, 2013. Suarez appeared to bite the arm of Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic at the end of a tussle during the game.

Just a couple of days after I praised Luis Suarez for the outstanding season he has had with Liverpool — and that he would be my choice for Player of the Year — came a shocking incident involving the Uruguayan striker that is still the talk in football circles.I’m talking about the biting incident involving Suarez and and Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic last weekend that quickly landed him a fine from his club and a 10-game ban by the FA, which means he will miss the last four games of the season with Liverpool and the first six next season. Suarez, who has been in trouble before over alleged racist comments and diving accusations, is clearly not doing his reputation any good, as good a player sd he is.He has to work with himself to control his temper and you know that a lot of players from that part of the world, Latin America, are hot-headed anyway. He has been punished and rightly so and it will prevent him from getting the Player of the Year but you have to judge him when he’s playing football. It is not the first time he’s been in trouble and I’m not condoning what he did.It is going to be tough for him to win the award anyway because Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick in midweek as Manchester United wrapped up another league title. That might put van Persie in the driver’s seat if he continues to score goals. He’s now the top goal scorer. In fact one of his goals against Aston Villa was top drawer and only he can do something like that.Up until that time I think Suarez was the man but now you might have to take a different look. It is the first time I’ve seen anybody bite somebody like that and I don’t know what I would have done. I probably would have waited until I went into a tackle with him and sorted it out that way, but it is strange to see somebody bite someone.I thought Ivanovic handled it well and was probably more shocked and surprised. Very seldom you see stuff like that and maybe Suarez does need help.The question now is will he still be a Liverpool player next season, but I think he will stay. The club have punished him, the FA have punished him and you do want to see good players play, you don’t want to see them moving all over the place. If he leaves Liverpool it is going to be a big dent in their attacking force.The club have decided not to appeal the ban and rightly so because he has been in so much trouble before, having done it in Holland and now in England. That’s why the ban was so high. I’m not surprised at the severity of it and those people who have voiced their objections are probably Liverpool fans and I can understand that. But right is right and wrong is wrong and you can’t go around on a football field biting people.The league race is now decided and I expect Reading and QPR, who meet this weekend, to be relegated. Both are all but gone and to get out of it would be a miracle.This week we watched two impressive performances by the two German sides Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund who each scored convincing victories over Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona in the first left of the Champions League semi-finals. The German teams are very strong teams and they can play and to footballing people it probably isn’t much of a shock because we know the capabilities of the Germans.If you look at the way the two Spanish sides play, it is a type of soccer that is very attractive, but not too many people have really put pressure on them. For the first time the Germans put pressure on them and you saw what happened. The Germans decided to knock it into the box and put them under pressure and they seemed to crack under those circumstances. You got to see their defensive frailties.Nobody is immune to having four goals put past them, especially when you have teams like Dortmund and Bayern Munich, who are both playing superbly. As for the tie being over, in football you never say never and if anybody can pull it back it will be Barcelona. However, with the resilience of the German teams it will be tough in the second leg this week.