James Lawton: Luis Suarez's record leaves Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers in the dock

No one is saying that the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, had an easy job defending Luis Suarez this week but some of the positions he took were especially absurd.

Most notable in this respect was his claim that “the punishment was against the man rather than the incident”.

Unfortunately, Brendan, that’s how it works in most reasonable forms of justice. First offenders tend to get off more lightly. Recidivists get a longer stretch.