It’s time for football to do something about the chaos at set-pieces. It is out of control. It ruins the spectacle. It isn’t entertainment. I’m not surprised so many people are moaning about it.
All the holding and wrestling that’s going on. Players in head locks, pushing to create confusion, crowding so the goalkeeper can’t get to the ball. The referee doesn’t have enough eyes to police all the chaos. It’s an absolute nonsense.
I expect some people will laugh because my teams always had a reputation for being physical and strong at set-pieces. We were good at them. So were other teams, including Arsenal under George Graham.
We worked hard on them. We put a lot of thought in and practised them. We practised runs because we wanted our players to be arriving in the right areas on the move and we wanted to pick them out with good delivery.
There were things we did to block opponents, especially if we knew they were dangerous. We used long throws. But none of it like we see now in the Premier League.
The game has changed in many ways, but they’ve taken this to a whole new level in the pursuit of marginal gains. It has become ridiculous. And it isn’t anything like this in the Championship.
It’s time for football to do something about the chaos at set-pieces. It is out of control. It ruins the spectacle. It isn’t entertainment
All the holding and wrestling that’s going on. Players in head locks, pushing to create confusion, crowding so the goalkeeper can’t get to the ball
I expect some people will laugh because my sides always had a reputation for being physical and strong at set-pieces… but teams are taking it to a whole new level now
We’ve got to do something about it. Referees can start by lowering the levels of tolerance, giving out some penalties and yellow cards.
Managers would soon retreat if there was any jeopardy of players getting sent off. I know there’s a lot going on, and it’s hard to pick just one foul out of that lot, and the referees are afraid of making mistakes.
And they’ve got players running around pretending they’ve been pushed when they haven’t been pushed at all, like Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez at Arsenal.
Players always look to bend the rules, but the VAR is there to help the referees and they should apply the rules inside the six-yard box in the same way they’re applied everywhere else on the pitch.
Look at the goals from the Arsenal-Chelsea game on Sunday and there are players holding, grappling, turning each other around, pulling each other out of the way. Arsene Wenger, the great Gunners manager, would be against all of this. He wouldn’t see it as part of football.
Life is not all about the purists, but we’ve got to make sure football is enjoyable to watch. There’s nothing enjoyable about waiting for people to walk slowly from one side of the pitch to the other to take a long throw.
We might as well go and watch American football.
The obsession with long throws has become a problem. Football is a game we play with the feet. There shouldn’t be any advantage to gain because you can throw it a long way.
Arsenal were brilliant at set-pieces under George Graham (Alan Smith, centre, pictured scoring against Crystal Palace in the 1993 League Cup semi-final)
I’d also be open to the idea of some sort of restriction on the number of players each team is allowed inside the six-yard box at any one time
The idea of a time limit to get the ball back in play quickly is a good idea, that might help. I’d be surprised if some influential European clubs, who don’t use the long throws as much as we do in this country, are not lobbying lawmakers for a change to the rules.
I’d also be open to the idea of some sort of restriction on the number of players each team is allowed inside the six-yard box at any one time, if that’s feasible.
I’m not the font of all knowledge. I would hate to come across like that, but I do feel as though we’ve got to recognise where this is going. If we don’t, we could all die of boredom.
Dave Bassett managed more than 1,000 matches in charge of Wimbledon, Watford, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Leicester City and Southampton, and is a serving LMA vice-president. He was speaking to MATT BARLOW.
