Danny Murphy‘s contrbituon to the tackling debate was welcome because he was the first player to break ranks and say something is wrong with the game in England.
The problem is that by saying that some managers tell their players to go out and hurt opponents, he gave some of them a way of getting off the hook. The managers in question just get all indignant and say: ‘I would never tell my players to go out and break someone’s leg’. It allows Mick McCarthy to make a joke about the whole issue – storm in a teacup, yes? No!
What the game needs is an end to recklessly dangerous tackles, whether they are meant maliciously or not. Take Jack Wilshere‘s red card tackle yesterday. He didn’t say to himself, ‘I’ve lost the ball so I’m going to break the leg of the Birmingham player who has it now’. He was frustrated because his first touch was poor and stupidly lunged in with a reckless tackle.
It wasn’t high speed, rigid-legged or really high, but it was reckless and wrong. So he rightly got a red card. Because that sort of tackle can cause injury and is nothing to do with a skillful game. Willshere will hopefully learn the lesson.
We need two clear principles to be accepted across English football.
The first is that players are individually responsible and they have to cut out reckless tackles that are just a substitute for a mistake, a lack of pace or skill. When they don’t, they should get a red card.
The second is that managers need to accept that the way to compete with an opposing team made up of much more talented players is pace, organization and concentration. Just like West Brom when they came to Arsenal. And that by telling their players to be physical, they are giving them license to be reckless.
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