Serious Question-Pushing and Shoving?

[MikeSB]

We had a penalty against us when our player was deemed to have pushed or shoved an opposition player and so just go into the Telegraph newspaper headlines and see a photo of two players holding onto an opposition player ie West Ham vs Manu and so my question is...

Is a push or a shove or holding onto players a foul or not? It happens the whole time on corners and IF we had decent coaches and managers they would stop 20 players huddling the 6 yard box on corners and put half a dozen players near the half way line and that would give the GK some room to move off his line. Its all bonkers and we calll this coaching?

[gazan]

Hold your breath MSB but I sort of agree. 1st, referees are very lax about holding/wrestling. The same rules should apply as for handball. Arms in an unnatural position Viv a Vis somebody's body should be a foul wherever it happens on the pitch. 2nd, I've never understood packing your defence on corners and free kicks around the box. It closes down space and limits the goalkeepers ability to use space to get to crosses. An overcrowded box also creates chaos in limiting space for clearances. As you say putting a defending side player up on the halfway line usually results in the attacking side leaving a couple of defenders back.

[lukcour]

This is really worrying because I agree with both of you/ Must be a first LOL. Far too many refs especially in the Premiership are now deciding if a foul is severe enough to be awarded or not. Basically a foul is a foul. And packing the defence is so negative and makes clearing your back lines near on impossible. In full agreement about the stupid behaviour of both sets of players in the box when they are waiting for the set piece.

Gazan this pices of information is for you, but please do not tell Mike. You will of course noticed that Man. City often attack with 5 forwards. However for some reason their defence holds a high line which makes them vulnerable.

[gazan]

Hence the 5-4 on Tuesday and the occasional 2nd half collapsed!!