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Adnan Januzaj: Manchester United winger has only been booked for diving four times NOT five

Misleading stats accuse the Belgian winger of being booked more than he has

Tom Sheen
Tuesday 10 March 2015 12:00 GMT
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(Getty Images)

Adnan Januzaj is a diver, that much is certain.

But the Manchester United winger has been slightly harshly treated this morning and last night, with various reports stating that he has been booked five times, taking him past his career goals tally of four.

Having checked, double checked, triple checked, looked again a fourth time and had a colleague look also, Januzaj definitely, certainly, categorically only picked up the fourth yellow card of his Manchester United career for diving last night.

Januzaj has been booked nine times in total for Manchester United, but only four of those were for diving. The 20-year-old was booked three times for simulation last season - at Sunderland and at home to West Ham and Tottenham within a couple of weeks of each other.

He has not been booked for diving since that game against Spurs on New Year's Day 2014 until last night, when he skipped past Nacho Monreal before needlessly throwing himself to the floor.

Januzaj (Getty Images)

His five other bookings came for a strong fouls against Southampton, Hull, Sunderland in the Capital One Cup win, for handball at West Brom and another foul at St Mary's in May.

Before last night's game he had not been booked this season and he has not been booked in any of his six caps for Belgium.

Below are match reports from The Independent for every game in which Januzaj has been shown a yellow card, go through them with your finest tooth comb, a booking for a dive - especially a player who has previous - is usually the kind of thing that gets mentioned by our reporters.

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Booked for diving

Sunderland 1 Manchester United 2 – 05/10/13

Manchester United 3 West Ham 1 – 21/12/13

Manchester United 1 Tottenham 2 – 01/01/14

Manchester United 1 Arsenal 2 – 09/03/15

Not booked for diving

Manchester United 1 Southampton 1 – 19/10/13

Hull City 2 Manchester United 3 – 26/12/13

Manchester United 2 Sunderland 1 – 22/01/14

West Brom 0 Manchester United 3 – 08/03/14

Southampton 1 Manchester United 1 – 11/05/14

If you find the missing fifth booking, please let our bleary-eyed reporters know in the comments section below

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