Betway ambassador Robbie Keane has been talking on his latest Betway Blog about the new rules to help the matches flow and to my astonishment, I agree with him!
He points out how good the Manchester City v Arsenal match was, but that the cards being given were unnecessary and not what referees want to be having to do.
I seem to remember each season claims that referees go to the clubs and talk about new rules and what they expect from the players and yet nothing ever really changes does it? And Keane is right in what he says, the fans want to see flowing football, not players delaying restarts.
He says “Manchester City v Arsenal was a great game to watch, and Leandro Trossard’s red card has sparked a lot of debate. I like the new rules around delaying the restart, and I just think we need to keep the game flowing. It can get a bit static with players wasting time and doing silly things.”
Personally, I would stamp out the fairly new pushing and shoving between players in the box, before every corner, to me they seem to spend so much time running around each other and grappling, that half the time they don’t see the ball being crossed in. It also isn’t exactly a great spectacle for us fans, is it, especially when the odd player has a slight shove and collapses to the floor ‘in agony and distress’ !
I digress, Keane added, “The red cards for Trossard and Declan Rice were both silly, but the refs don’t really want to give them and they were given no choice. It was unfortunate for Arsenal but they are red cards, and fans want to see the game flowing as much as possible. In some games, the ball is only in play for 40 minutes.”
There is quite a bit that could be done to improve the flow of the modern game in my humble, players stopping all the play acting being the main thing for me, but I can’t disagree with Keane on this delaying tactic, it breaks the game up too much.
Now we move on to a visit to Newcastle, you can see who the bookies favour, for me, even though it isn’t an easy place to go, I’m sure we’ll come away with all three points.
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