The state of football

[Geetarman]

I watched Blackpool v Lincoln.

The pundits were assessing the performance after the game. 'His fouls were committed in good areas of the pitch'

What has happened to the game????

[rolymiller]

I watched Blackpool v Lincoln.

The pundits were assessing the performance after the game. 'His fouls were committed in good areas of the pitch'

What has happened to the game????

Yep. Brentford deserved to win yday but the way they were chucking themselves on the floor showed they were geared up for the Prem. Canos spent more time on the floor than his feet rolling around but wasn't averse to putting in some sly digs on ankles himself. Not that Swansea are exactly angels either when it comes to play acting.

[great_fire]

Joleon Lescott said that a player "made the right fouls" yesterday as well after the Champions League final.

[avondalemiller]

....this is why people fall out with it all......diving, feigning injury then jumping back up......

If the trainers comes on for 2 mins, then the "injured player stays off for 2 mins".........see what happens then. Head injuries are so easy to stop the game now. De Bruyne was an exception yesterday, you have to trust the Ref.............oh god help em...lol.

[jocksgloves]

Modern football seems to be getting depressingly cynical. The last 5 minutes of a game is hardly worth watching. Players going down, mass substitutions, playing at the corner flag. Keepers making a simple catch, then flopping to the floor. It is getting unwatchable.

[great_fire]

Modern football seems to be getting depressingly cynical. The last 5 minutes of a game is hardly worth watching. Players going down, mass substitutions, playing at the corner flag. Keepers making a simple catch, then flopping to the floor. It is getting unwatchable.

Because there's so much money involved no-one wants to take any risks.

Plus the fans will be calling for your blood on social media if you make a mistake.

[CASPER-64-FRANK]

I watched Blackpool v Lincoln.

The pundits were assessing the performance after the game. 'His fouls were committed in good areas of the pitch'

What has happened to the game????

It's all money motivated now, has been for some time. The likes of Sky, BT, ESPN ruined it for me.
Very few pundits I actually listen to although I do value and take on board some ex-players who've ' been there, done the job' etc.

Sometimes I mute the sound, watch the matches with some head phones on listening to some music.

[Ronners]

Modern football seems to be getting depressingly cynical. The last 5 minutes of a game is hardly worth watching. Players going down, mass substitutions, playing at the corner flag. Keepers making a simple catch, then flopping to the floor. It is getting unwatchable.

It's not just the last 5 mins jocks, if a team get a goal early 2nd half to take the lead, then throw ins, regularly take between 20/30 secs from ball going out to coming back into play, and yes as you point out about players going down, but then most of the time they dont need treatment and that bit of play acting can take up to 45 secs to a full min.
I've thought about this before, but I think that now is the time, literally, to take timekeeping off the ref and have an official timekeeper at matches, I believe that for every substitution and goal, the ref is supposed to add 30 secs on, but not only does the ref not always do that, but substitutions and goal celebrations regularly take longer than 30 secs. I know it wont stop players feigning injury, but it would definitely stop them running the clock down if time was stopped whenever a ball went out of play or a player went down or a substitution is made, it's worth thinking about for the rule makers. UTM

[great_fire]

"Jack Grealish reveals the secret to being 'successfully' fouled as taught by Martin O'Neill"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/euro-202...taught-martin/

[MillersTime]

If you want to reduce time wasting then reduce the match length to something like 70 minutes and pause the clock when the ball is dead. I know I often reference basketball but I'm sure there are other sports that do it. When the ball is out of bounds the clock stops, when someone is taking free throws the clock stops, when someone is fouled the clock stops until it is inbounded again.

Positives:

A game lasting 48 minutes actually gives you a full 48 minutes of game time due to the clock stopping for the aforementioned (and other reasons to stop the clock).

Negatives:

A 48 minute game in real time takes between 2 1/2 and 3 hours practically every game. If you did this method you would get true game time but it would take forever. Granted you wouldn't have timeouts eating into the gametime but it would still be significant.


I don't think there is an easy answer. If a guy goes down with a couple of minutes to go holding his head then the ref has to stop the play. Imagine if he didn't and the guy was concussed or worse. The ref would probably lose his job. Players need to take more responsibility in not play acting but they won't because they get away with it. The problem football has is that everyone thinks 'everyone else does it so why shouldn't we?' all the time.Take a goalkeeper wasting a minute on a goal kick. Infuriating when it is against you but you would go nuts if it was your own keeper and he did anything but take forever. Just the way it is.

Simple reality is those tactics are the worst thing ever when others do it but smart when our own team does. Same for everyone.