I think that players might be being coached to aim the ball at opposition players when they are in their penalty box if they don't have a clear chance of a strike at goal. If you look at the clip of the Everton player against Palace, he seems to direct his header towards the Palace defender on purpose, likewise with Andy Carroll, he seems to deliberately direct his header at Dier. What do you guys think?
One thing I like about EFL football is no VAR. Handball should be when somebody intentionally touches the ball to thwart the opposition. All this natural position of arms and hands is total bs, if you are leaping about or running around is there a natural position? Aslo what is natural about players holding their arms against their bodies when defending? It does look like players are intentionally kicking or heading the ball at players to get a penalty from what I have seen in MOTD highlights.
Are players exploiting it? Definitely - though I don't agree Carroll did given Dier's arm was swinging up into the air. The obvious answer for me is to change it so an accidental handball is an indirect freekick. Only a deliberate handball should result in a penalty.
Maybe the refs could card players that he deems to have deliberately targeted defenders hands/arms in order to try and gain a penalty for ungentlemanly conduct? Refs could do that even if he still has to award a penalty according to the new handball laws. That might be a deterrent for players who are deliberately trying to take advantage and misuse the new law.
This all started when people stopped accepting the decision of the referee, crucially even when he made an honest mistake. I think most people would like handballs, and indeed fouls, only to be given if they are deliberate and the ref, whether on the pitch or in the VAR booth, should be allowed to make that judgement. But all would have to abide by that decision. Of course there would be mistakes but the authorities would just have to constantly strive to improve the standard of refereeing.
Handballs have always been subjective and led to debates. VAR hasn't changed that at all. In fact we now end up having to wait longer and see more soft ones given. Understand none of these handball penalties were originally given. So are the on field refs using their own instinct then being told they have to give a penalty by the law of the game ?
I think this could be quite a good idea actually. Although what would you class as deliberate with these rules? Just the Suarez vs Ghana type ones off the line? I saw a stat that we're on course so far for 300+ penalties awarded in the PL this season. The all time record is something like 120. VAR and the silhouette rule has changed the game massively.
This is all down to those fans/pundits/players/managers who screamed blue murder everytime a decision went against them . "Bring in technology" they all moaned " we need consistency" they also cried. Meanwhile a minority of people who foresaw this stupidity were shouted down by the mob and were reduced to barking at the moon whilst every fan of every team thought that the introduction of technology would catapult their team to the heights that errant lino flags had previously denied them without ever considering that 92 football teams cannot all benefit from technology. What we do have now is pedantic consistency . You reap what you sow but finding a var\techno fan is very hard to do these days . "Not me guv, always hated the idea " they now all seem to say . Well done guys ! You know who you are
