Leandro Trossard was sent off for Arsenal against Man City for delaying the restart of the match. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
When Leandro Trossard was booked for kicking the ball away at Man City, he knew what he was doing and no one was in the least bit surprised when the official eventually went for the red card.
Arsenal were incensed by the punishment though they did hold on gamely until the 97th minute before their goal was breached again.
More instances of players delaying the restart to a set piece have occurred since the Trossard incident, with those players seemingly going unpunished, and a former official felt sorry for the Arsenal man after he was ordered off the pitch.
Leandro Trossard scenario can be combatted in future
Is it any wonder then, that managers and players are angered by the notion that PGMOL’s officials just can’t get any consistency in their decision making?
Stan Collymore believes there’s a really easy fix to the current hot potato topic.
“The issue of players kicking balls away or delaying set pieces is a really easy one to solve,” he told CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Bring in a law or a rule that a player, when the referee has blown his whistle, is not allowed to touch the ball. No player is allowed to pick it up, to move it, to roll it… until the referee has blown the whistle a second time.
“[…] There’s a huge grey area at the moment that if the referee blows the whistle and the ball is dead, players are just trying to take up their position.
“It’s a habit that they’ve got into and been told to do by coaches and managers. ‘Go and stand on the ball, move the ball, kick the ball, stop the ball. Don’t retreat 10 yards…’
“[…] It will also stop the situation like that which happened to Kyle Walker during the Arsenal game.”
On the face of it, Collymore’s potential directive is one of those that was so obvious you wonder why no one had ever thought of it before.
Walker was beside himself when Arsenal scored their first goal from Riccardo Calafiori, mainly because he hadn’t yet got back in his position, which he was taken out of because he was summonsed by the match official, Michael Oliver.
He detailed his frustrations after the game, in quotes capture by Metro.
Although it adds another layer to the referees responsibility, it would arguably take away the argument and the subsequent need for pathetic yellow cards.
