"Penguins cannot play football" - the state of defending and the ridiculous penalty rule

Suedesi

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That's a Boban / Di Canio phrase that refers to defenders keeping their hands behind their back to avoid giving a penalty.

Sky Italia were analyzing KDB's equalizer from LFC-City and they pointed out that Matip had his hands behind his back for like 5 seconds - from Foden's cross until after KDB's shot ricochet's off his chest - the entire time Matip's keeping his hands behind his back and moving like a penguin. They pointed out that mechanically if you keep your hands behind your back you can't move freely, you can't throw your body forward, raise your leg etc - hence the ball to hand penalty rule as applied in England is a bit stupid and has hampered defending


https://video.gazzetta.it/video-can...o-calcio/2400f45a-2506-11ec-b4c6-4473e272e586
 

Schmiznurf

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It is stupid, theu just can't be bothered to judge whether their arms were in an unnatural position or not so made it ridiculous.
 

The Mitcher

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Schmiznurf said:
It is stupid, theu just can't be bothered to judge whether their arms were in an unnatural position or not so made it ridiculous.
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This whole unnatural position thing is just stupid. The only way it's unnatural were if he somehow contorted it into a weird unknown shape. It's all natural movements and shapes. What should be judged is intent.
 

Eric_the_Red99

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The arms-behind-backs thing has got to be the dumbest trend in modern football. As far as I can tell, most referees apply the law sensibly in these situations and few penalties are given incorrectly when a shot hits an arm in a ‘natural position’.

But pretty much every time I see a defender with their arms behind their backs, they fail to make a tackle or a block and they might as well not be there at all.
 

sullydnl

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How much do they actually care about rules that hamper defending though given they typically see more goals in the game as a good thing?

The handball rules have pretty much always been a source of controversy, because it's difficult to come up with a fair and consistent way of judging them. It's fine to say "it should be about intent" but the referees aren't mind-readers, they can only judge intent based on what physically happens, which inevitably means they have to make the judgement based on the positioning and actions of the hand as per the guideline they're given. However you draw those guidelines, there'll be complaints.
 

adexkola

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Sissoko against Liverpool comes to mind. Defenders are caught in a hard place.

I've always been of the opinion that handballs that don't deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity should be penalized with a free kick at the spot of the infringement, even in the box. Football is too simple for that.
 

Cloud7

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The Mitcher said:
This whole unnatural position thing is just stupid. The only way it's unnatural were if he somehow contorted it into a weird unknown shape. It's all natural movements and shapes. What should be judged is intent.
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The thing about intent is, you're kinda fighting your instinct/reflexes as well. If you see a ball coming towards your face, or something that could strike the side of your head, being hit hard from a close distance, without even consciously deciding to act, your reflex reaction in that situation is to stick your hand out to protect yourself, which I think is what we see a lot of in the penalty box, since it is balls being hit hard from a close distance.
 

criticalanalysis

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Eric_the_Red99 said:
The arms-behind-backs thing has got to be the dumbest trend in modern football. As far as I can tell, most referees apply the law sensibly in these situations and few penalties are given incorrectly when a shot hits an arm in a ‘natural position’.

But pretty much every time I see a defender with their arms behind their backs, they fail to make a tackle or a block and they might as well not be there at all.
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That's pretty much Lindelof there in more situations than I'd like him to be in.

Hand beind his back a full several seconds before the attacking player has taken the final touch/pass/shot. The West Ham goal in the league cup is a recent example. Yes there was other factors before the build up to it but his defending for the cross was soft.
 

cyberman

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People keep talking about natural position so if a ball hits your hand while they’re behind your back then it’s a surely a pen? What’s natural about that?
 

CG1010

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The attacking players deliberately try to hit the crosses in a way that maximises the chance to hit the arm to get a penalty. This should be stamped out soon otherwise football will become a joke.
 
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