or at least the interpretation of it. Watford have a free kick and position four players behind the wall to obscure Scmeichels view. They leg it as the kicker takes his run up, but are still between the last Leicester player and the keeper when the ball is kicked, no flag. Leicester play a long ball that's heading for the edge of the box. A Leicester players steals half a yard on his marker to pressure the keeper, but gets nowhere near, the keeper clears it, but only to a Leicester player who tries to lob the keeper, but the linesman's flag's already waving. Surely the first four are interfering with play far more than the second one?
If you have ever played in goal you would know how much having players in front of you affects the way you read a situation, especially if they are actually blocking the view of the ball
I have played in goal and I maintain it's bullshit. 10 years ago you were only offside if you touched the ball which came straight from a team-mate. Now you can be offside without touching the ball and also straight off an opposition player. You can even be offside from a shot which has since been saved. The worst thing is most people don't even question how ridiculous that is.
It's completely unnecessary. Offside as a rule is obviously there to prevent 'goal-scrounging' and that's all it should be used for. All these modern complications are just bollocks. There is no reason whatsoever why being in an offside position when a shot is played is somehow unfair. There's no way you could use it to your advantage deliberately. You think it's okay because we're used to it now but there's just no reason for it.
Sian Massey, the assistant referee, has the most error free decisions regarding offside of all assistant refereees this season according to a recent report. This blows away the widely held view that women do not understand the offside rule! Take that S. Fry and Alan Davies! The next offside rule should be completely constructed by women without any involvement of men. Only then will it be universally understood. Please note in commenting that the swear filter is not working!!
You have a point ellewoods. I suspect that sian Massey gets all decisions wrong, but the blokes just agree with her for an easy life
It's the way to do it unfortunately. Joking aside, Massey is probably the best linesman(woman) in the World.
A none answer from me I'm afraid. The issue has been raised with the owners by other mods, and in very strong terms. We're told they're looking into it. I'm not a techy, so I've no idea what could be involved.
So you would have it in the rules where a player could just block off the keeper like they do at corners but for the entire game? I hope you understand how many problems that would cause
How the hell can you say that? How many linespeople from around the world do you watch with regularity? Without googling, how many linespeople can you name from the 4 main leagues in Europa let alone the rest of the world?
Err no I wouldn't start allowing fouls, that's ridiculous, but I'd certainly let them stand near the goalie not touching him if they wanted to. It certainly wouldn't gain them an advantage.
It's also staggering how many people don't know that you can't be offside from a goal kick, as opposed to the keeper kicking it out of his hands. Every week at the KC people around me are shouting for offside if a player is stood well behind the last defender and even if you tell them some don't believe you.
Once at school this became a huge argument between me and almost every other lad in our year. No one believed me. Someone ended up bringing the PE teacher into it and even he didn't know the rule. It turned out the only person who knew I was right was current City reserve Conor Townsend.
Blocking a keeper is not a foul as we see every corner, but it would give you a ridiculous advantage as they couldn't dive to save any shots. I really can't believe you think that having somebody standing permanently in front of the keeper would not make the game worse
The off-side rule has always courted controversy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(association_football) scroll down to the 'history of offside' for some interesting viewpoints and variations of the rule, back in the mid 19th century.
You'd just get strikers hanging around the edge of their 18 yard box miles offside and players trying to ping deflected long balls down the pitch that just skim off an opponent, players blocking the keepers vision and movement and strikers hanging about in the 6 yard box half the game doing **** all whilst the midfielders just constantly ping long shots all the time hoping the keeper spills one. May aswell have rush goalie as well.
From memory, can you not be offside from a throw-in either? I might be making that up... I know you cant from a corner.
