Morning all.
The International Football Association Board [IFAB] will publish the detailed protocols for sin-bin trials in professional football later today. The IFAB is expected to include a provision for blue cards. During the trials, referees will have the power to send players off for 10 minutes for dissent or cynical fouls. Two blue cards result in a sending off, as does one yellow and blue card. So in reality, it’s just a booking with a ten minute sin bin added on.
If it helps stop the surrounding of a referee etc and the cynical fouls, then this will be a good thing in my opinion. The cynical fouls especially because I think it’s wrong that a quick attacking breakaway can be stopped with a cynical foul. Yes, an offending player will usually get booked but perhaps he/she will think twice knowing they will miss the next ten minutes of a game. Managers might start discouraging such behaviour from his/her players too because 8 times out of 10, an offending player is usually a defensive one.
Paul Merson hates the idea:
You put someone in the sin bin in football for 10 minutes, you’re killing the game. You’d get 10 players sitting behind the ball the whole time, it’d be the most boring football ever. It’s an absolute waste of time, a waste of time. Everybody loves the Premier League, you have a shot at one end and there’s a corner up the other end 30 seconds later. That just goes out the window for this 10 minutes, the team with the man down have got no choice but to sit behind the ball.
I think he’s missing the point really as he’s assuming players won’t take on board what could potentially be the outcome of the rule. We might just see better attacking play because there should be less cynical fouls. Forget the ‘ten men behind the ball’ idea, which to be fair, is already present in the game, there should be more free flowing football which is going to stopped by a shirt pull, or a foul when there’s been zero attempt to get the ball. The excitement in the game as Merse describes should in theory only increase.
According to The Times, The Football Association will consider trialling sin bins in the FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup next season.
Back to the here and now, football without blue cards and sin bins, we have to wait another couple of days before Arsenal are back in action. The victory over Liverpool seems a long time ago now.
Gabriel has been voted our men’s Player of the Month for January after receiving 68% of the fans votes. No surprise really as he’s been an absolute rock at the back. Plus his two goals against Crystal Palace couldn’t have been timed better. We’d gone through a sticky patch over the festive period and Mikel Arteta needed his players to start afresh after the winter break. I’d say he got exactly what he’d hoped for. Three wins out of three so far. Our big Brazilian is also in the mix for Premier League Player of the Month.
There are some big fixtures this weekend, especially ours against West Ham.
Jorginho on Arsenal.com:
Everyone is happy but now is the moment to stay focused and push even more, to go with the good momentum and try to win another game. It will be a really tough game. They play well there and it’s a hard place to go and win. They showed already that it’s really hard, we’ve been there, and now it’s the moment for us to change things around in our way. It’s important to keep cool heads in the title race, not get carried away and keep feet on the ground, and that’s exactly how the team are approaching it.
I think we need to focus, as I always said, game by game. The Liverpool game is gone now and we need to focus on West Ham and the next one after that and the next one after that. If we want to stay in the race, we need to focus on each game and give everything we can in every single game.
He’s right, we all know that. One game at a time, one opponent at a time too. There’s little point focusing on tomorrow when there’s a job to get done today. So on Sunday, it’s about West Ham and them alone, not what went on against Liverpool or next weekend’s match against Burnley. West Ham. Who in the squad is in the best form, who is best equipped to deal with a very strong West Ham team. Yes, Man Utd thrashed them last weekend but that might fire them up to come back stronger. Equally, just as we totally battered one of the best teams in the Premier League, it doesn’t mean ‘job done’ – it means we won three points and nothing more.
I doubt Manchester City or Liverpool will lose their matches this weekend as both clubs are at home. City face Everton while Liverpool take on Burnley. Totts play Brighton and Newcastle go to Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa play Manchester Utd on Sunday. The only important game on Sunday though is West Ham v Arsenal.
We’ll know more on the fitness of the squad etc after Mikel Arteta has held his press conference.
Catch up in the comments..
Good morning Rico, in theory I’m in favour of the sin bin idea. As you rightly say, anything that stops cynical fouls can only be a good thing. Unfortunately, a cynical foul is not a clear cut thing, it is subject to the referee’s opinion and as such could well have the opposite effect as players will surround the official trying to force a rethink.
However, another proposal put forward is to follow the Rugby Union protocol whereby only the team captain can speak the the referee. Anyone else will receive a caution.
If both changes are initiated simultaneously I think the sin bin idea will be quite effective.
There has also been talk about speeding up Var decisions and showing the Var videos on big screens inside the grounds as well as broadcasting conversations between refs and Var operators.
Morning Cicero. I’m kind of in the same camp. Great idea but we’re still relying on referees to apply the rule consistently. The captain only talking to refs is in already isn’t it? Or have I got that wrong?
I think rugby is a good example which football should have followed years ago.
I too thought that idea was in force Rico, but from the number of times in every game that the ref is surrounded by protesting players we must both be wrong.
There’s one further rule, from Rugby Union, that I would like to see introduced to football and that is if anyone disputes the award of a free kick the referee should move the ball forward by ten yards, if that results in the ball being placed inside the penalty box, then the free kick automatically becomes a penalty.
I’m all for that too Cicero. Wasn’t that once on the agenda in football?
I suggested it some while ago on arsenal insider, I think, but it didn’t go down well probably we were too often the ones committing the fouls and had far too much “interaction” with officialdom.😕
Morning Rico and all.
In the word of football/soccer Australia is only a small drop in the ocean, but we have been looking at the sin bin rule for a while and also making it that only the captain can complain on the field, to stop the players from entering the ref space.
I guess one way of slowly introducing the sin bin rule would be for any player that deliberately touches the ref gets 15 minutes
The next question would be, do we bring it for the managers and coaching staff, who keep having a go at the 4th offical for example Sean Dyche.
Paul Merson, I know, I know, has come out as not in favour of the sin bin rule, he believes that the team temporarily a player down will resort to parking the bus thereby slowing the game and removing much of the excitement from it. He has a point.
If the sin bin rule ever comes in, , let’s hope it’s not used for time wasting as I Ben White will be in there so much he might as well take a cut lunch with him. 🤦♂️
Morning Geoff, I guess it’s football worldwide now. It’s certainly been a topic of conversation for a while but now the trials seem imminent.
Cicero, Merse comments in the post. 😜
Afternoon Rico and Co
Blue cards, now let guess, who’ll be the first manager to get a blue card?
And who’ll be the very first club to have one of its players receive in a match a 2nd blue card (red card) …?
No prizes btw.
Sorry Rico, I did read your post but read the Merson comments around three a m. So I guess I must have skip read that part of your post this morning and it didn’t register with me.
Blue cards for dissent and cynical fouls has got to be worth a try. The tactical foul you often see could be eliminated ( Arsenal are guilty of those too of course)
I don’t watch a lot of Rugby other than internationals but there are things football could learn from,players respect the referee,the ref being miked up – there is no reason why that couldn’t happen in football,it might make the players behave better. Also the timekeeping is fuss free.
Afternoon Kev. Ha ha, does it apply to managers though?
Agree there Limey, the fans of football could learn a lot too.
Just teasing Cicero.
Big Gabriel’s passing against Liverpool was excellent. He helped make our left side dangerous all game long. Good to see him get recognition.
Absolutely Nigel, his goals against Palace were excellent too.
I wasn’t too keen initially on the thought of Arsenal paying a shed-load of dosh for Osimhen, not least because of his recent injuries in Italy and the fact that we’d lose him every two years in the middle of the season, but I’m kinda warming to it now mainly because I think that Toney, as good as he is, isn’t going to be cost effective due to his age and the fee that Brentford will demand – as is their right.
Of course if Napoli demand £120m+ then it’s not going to happen.
What Liverpool have and have had since Klopp began working at Anfield is an array of attacking options, much as Wenger in his early years at Highbury. I always thought, back in those days, that Wenger’s go to tactical master plan was chuck on a couple of forwards if you’re chasing the game against a ‘deep block’ as it was back then. No team can double up on 4 or 5 forwards..,
The great Marquinos mystery has been solved, he has gone on loan to Brazilian side Fluminense.
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According to the CIES Football Observatory, Starboy aka Bukayo Saka, is worth €200 million. That’s £171 million in real money.
Well the “Blue Card Initiative” has received a less than overwhelming welcome by top Premiership managers and IFAB have delayed it’s announcement until further talks have been held.
Watching Spurs, Romero is a thug and a mistake waiting to happen.
I watched most of the Luton vs Sheff Utd game and it was quite entertaining, if also allowed me to watch Sambi Lokonga who did well, well enough to enhance his value and should earn a decent mark-up on the £17.2m Arsenal paid Anderlecht.
Nathan Tella and Granit Xhaka two ex-Gunners helping Leverkusan as they lead Bayern 2-0
There is a certain irony around Harry Kane winning nothing at Tottenham and moving to Bayern who win everything and then winning nothing with them…
I’d be happy if we could break-even on Lokonga. I think he’s got good talent, but in a different team set up, definitely not ours. Maybe a different league would be better.. but then, forget about breaking even.
Lokonga is still very young and has a lot to learn and whilst his passing and movement is good and he’s pretty good in the tackling dept he has a habit of losing concentration, switching off and making costly errors.
I reckon we’ll make a nice profit on him.
I’m pretty sure someone will snap Lokonga up.. Burnley perhaps as Kompany raved about him enough before we signed him. Mind you, Kompany might not be at Burnley in the summer.
I’d rather he improved vastly and worked his way back into our first team.
Kev I hope you’re right. I’d be thrilled with a profit. I do like his talent too.
The Harry Kane at Bayern is hilarious,thing is Spurs are much better without him,even entertaining(I’m coming over dizzy)
At some point,if not sacked first,Tuchel will realise no good comes from signing Spurs player(Eric Dier also in team)
I would like to see lokonga make it as I believe I was one of the first on this site to say we go after him, personally I never understood why Arteta brought him and never really gave him a chance to show what he could do, and I would not be surprised to see Burnley go after him.
If Everton go down, I wonder how their player Braithwait would do in our backline to support Ben White.
Good morning all.
Big day football wise, Arsenal Women vs Manchester City F A Cup live on BBC 2 12.30 kick off. Followed by West Ham vs Arsenal live on Sky kick off 14.00.
Morning Cicero, all.
Thanks for reminding me of the womens game. I’d forgotten. Doh!
New post up