Was Rashford interfering with play?

Was Rashford interfering with play?


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Greyfog

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Pass was made for Rashford and he continued his run. How that is not interference is beyond me really.
Kind of rule you expect in the 60s
 

kouroux

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It's not comparable.
Ederson was confused and had to take guess which United player was going to take shot. Walker was confused, if he had knew Rashford wasn't going to get the ball he would've closed Bruno down.
Your strongest argument is Akanji should've played to the whistle no matter what but it still doesn't explain above.

If offside player can just make feign moves & dummy run and get away with it then no point playing off side trap anymore.
About your last paragraph, it's been happening tbh. Plenty of players make runs when they're in offsides positions initially only to let one of their teammates touch and carry the ball. What happened yesterday wasn't the first time.
 

ScarleyUtd

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He basically dummied the ball and the city players are aggrieved that they fell for it. We’d be pissed off if it’d happened to us but c’est la vie. Next time those city players will play to the ref’s whistle.
Yes, plenty are giving the defenders an out when they should have also been aware of Bruno and covered him – or as you say, play to the whistle. The shot also came from the same spot Rashford would have stuck it, so the goalkeeper doesn't get an out either. Right decision.
 

cyberman

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Probably in the minority here but I think the new rule is an improvement in that it reduces the need to judge intent. Of course, this swings the balance of power towards the attacking team.

I’ve got zero sympathy for Akanji. Playing 11 a side on Sundays using amateur linesmen, I could never really tell whether we were successful playing the offside trap so we’d just keep going till the ref blew the whistle. Does Akanji know for sure that someone else hasn’t played Rashford on?

As for Ederson, we seem to be trying to fit the line of sight principle to this situation. Yes, Ederson might have played it differently if Rashford wasn’t there. But then he did charge out stupidly in the first half so maybe he wouldn’t have. Who knows? That’s why this rule is better imo.
He didn’t even charge out. The keeper is where he should be in that position by standing around the penalty spot and literally doesn’t move. Even the Ederson point is nonsense
 

Coleyoscar

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The only argument that really has much merit for me is that the keeper shouldn't have had to think about Rashford and Fernandes and wondering which would shoot. If any of the defenders would have put in enough effort or been able to get close enough to Rashford for them to have to consider his presence in their stride or move at all to avoid him it would have been chalked off. They didn't so he wasn't interfering with anything. Thats what the rule is getting at. If you are offside, it doesn't matter unless you directly impede the opposition in some way either by blocking their line of sight or making them take action to avoid you. Rashford did neither. Only thing that is questionable is whether the keeper was in two minds about who was going to shoot.

Would I have been annoyed if it was the other way around? Yep. In the grand scheme of questionable decisions this season its not even a footnote. United are just the biggest club in the country when it comes to attention so anything that happens with us is magnified. When Kane cheats to win Spurs penalties and games its not given this much scrutiny. When a handball is given or not given its not given this scrutiny.
Completely agree with this. It's because it's United.
If City had scored a goal like this the controversial element would be a footnote ("Them's the rules", etc., etc.)
If Rashford had behaved like this for England it probably wouldn't warrant a mention.
 

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It’s a technicality, but it’s also against the spirit of the game let’s have it right. I personally couldn’t give less of a shit though, considering the amount of times we’ve been fecked by bent decisions this season.
 

ScarleyUtd

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It's not comparable.
Ederson was confused and had to take guess which United player was going to take shot. Walker was confused, if he had knew Rashford wasn't going to get the ball he would've closed Bruno down.
Your strongest argument is Akanji should've played to the whistle no matter what but it still doesn't explain above.

If offside player can just make feign moves & dummy run and get away with it then no point playing off side trap anymore.
Walker should play to the whistle is the point. He could have closed Bruno down and didn't.
 

apotheosis

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Defenders were not close enough to have any complaints really. Had anybody bothered to track Bruno's run they could have prevented a shot at least.But they didn't, so tough.

Ederson's scenario is less clear. Once the flag stays down, he has to consider Rashford onside and make decisions upon that premise and in direct response to Rashfords continued movement. Rashford eventually leaving it doesn't alter the fact that his movement towards the ball also influences Edersons decision making and movement.

Is that enough to be interfering with play?
I'm not sure, but Rashy clearly influenced how Ederson had to react and was subsequently not best positioned when Bruno eventually scored.

So, in my view, i think Ederson had to act based upon the info he had at the time, and therefore probably has some justification for feeling aggrieved.

How much influence should be considered enough to rule out a goal within the current interpretations, is unclear, to me anyway. :)
 

HJ12

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It’s a technicality, but it’s also against the spirit of the game let’s have it right. I personally couldn’t give less of a shit though, considering the amount of times we’ve been fecked by bent decisions this season.
100% this. I'm trying to recall which game it was that we played City over the last couple of years, where a City player was was ambling from an offside position (think it may have been Fernandinho), was deemed not to be interfering with play when the ball was booted upfield towards him, and a City player subsequently scored (due to his "non-interference"). I'll take this goal thank you.
 

Rolandofgilead

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It's clearly offside. If it happened at the other end you'd all be going mad. But despite that I thought united were the better side.
 

arnie_ni

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If the rule was an offside player makes an attempt to receive the ball ie a rashford running towards it, the rule would be crystal clear for everyone to understand. I'm not sure why they don't just do something like that
 

Duafc

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The Motd analysis was shocking. They put the rule up and then let Richards go on a rant about it, with no regard to what the law actually says. They should have analysed it under the rules first (probably a legitimate goal but some debate about Ederson) and then considered whether the rule is correct.

Personally, this is not a rule I would change. We want to see more goals and defenders need to learn to play to the whistle, not think they’ve done their job because one player is offside. Plus, the speed of thought of Rashford/Bruno should be rewarded.

Edit - and actually I think technically on the specific wording of the rule any impact that he had on Ederson’s positioning shouldn’t be taken into account.
Yeah I agree, at the least it's unclear on the goalie situation - I was just saying what I think should be offside!

The MOTD analysis was Akanji has done everything right there, as if a defender only ever had to consider one player and if they successfully via the art of defending play him offside, whatever is happening behind them shouldn't matter.

Daft!
 

facund

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Have you seen the goal? Walker doesn’t get near either Bruno or Rashford? Let’s just say what you say is true, wouldn’t chasing Rashford instead of Bruno mean the presence of Rashford is making them run faster towards the ball thus making it a disadvantage for United?
They thought Rashford was offside and thus went through the motions.
Walker still gets ahead of Bruno and even waves a lazy leg to block once he sees Bruno is striking the ball.

I'm having trouble getting the image in the post but here is a link https://ibb.co/HtLBfgz
 

2 man midfield

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I will say the media pearl clutching over this is absolutely nuts considering Salah scored an even more batshit mental goal literally last week and nothing was said about it, even during the game. I get this was in a Derby but still. Madness.
 

facund

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IMO Bruno gets to the ball anyway so rashford had little impact when you watch in real time. It’s beautiful to see all the salty ABU tears!!
You can enjoy it without having to misrepresent the event, just as I am enjoying the win.
Rashford had an impact, however "little" you wish to portray it and if it was City or Pool benefitting you would likely be squealing.
 

Eplel

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Because he thought Rashford was going to take the shot.
What Walker thinks does not amount to Rashford interfering. Same for Akanji trying to play him offside. Rashford doesn't play an active role here.
 

Bosws87

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If akanji had actually tried to pressure the ball and tackle rashford it would have been given everytime, the naivety of just holding back was the deciding factor he won’t do that again.

It’s clearly interference and the goal should be chalked off but who cares, that Rodri handball against Everton still stinks till this day.
 

cyberman

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They thought Rashford was offside and thus went through the motions.
Walker still gets ahead of Bruno and even waves a lazy leg to block once he sees Bruno is striking the ball.

I'm having trouble getting the image in the post but here is a link https://ibb.co/HtLBfgz
Walker doesn’t get ahead of Bruno at al, you should watch the goal again
 

apotheosis

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But it's not clearly offside if you read the rules
Yeah, the issue seems to be how the officials determine the outcome. The eventual ruling is based upon how much Rashfords influence has potentially affected the outcome.

He was offside and continued to involve himself in that move until the very last second. So for a few seconds his was the only involvement that could have posibly affected the play.

Yet, because he doesn't actually touch the ball, or prevented an opponent from touching it, he is deemed not to have had enough of an influence to be deemed an intereference.

Seems quite a subjective determination to me. How much influence is needed to become an interference?
 

Quinze

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If akanji had actually tried to pressure the ball and tackle rashford it would have been given everytime, the naivety of just holding back was the deciding factor he won’t do that again.
Rashford was ahead of him. Are you suggesting that he fouls him as the last defender?
 

cyberman

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Look at the image in the link I posted.
The image means nothing, go look at the goal. Walker starts from further out but Bruno has the inside lane to get to the ball first. That’s why Walker kind of runs parallel to the shot because he can’t get across.
At no point does Walker slow down or change direction towards Rashford.
Casemiro ball completely takes out the City defenders. It would be ball of the season if he meant it!
 

jeff_goldblum

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Having watched the MotD analysis and their explanations of why it's definitely offside, I'm actually less convinced than I was when I voted yes in the poll.

Akanji holds a line to allow Rashford to drift offside, and in doing so leaves a gap in behind which Bruno can exploit with a well-timed run to score. That's not an offside player interfering, that's just failing to play a high line properly. Where Rashford is when Bruno hits the ball is only relevant if he's physically preventing Akanji or anyone else getting there. Otherwise, it's irrelevant.

For Rashford to be offside, Akanji has to demonstrate that he could have gotten to the ball before Bruno if Rashford hadn't been there. But if you watch the video, he's nowhere near being able to put in a challenge on Rashford, never mind Bruno. If he'd been close enough to touch Rashford (even to foul him) he'd have a point, but he wasn't and the reason we scored was ultimately that Bruno made a great run which broke their defensive line, not because Rashford was interfering.
 

fallengt

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Walker doesn’t get ahead of Bruno at al, you should watch the goal again
Mean closing down, not necessary blocking the ball. Walker could definitely do that. Are we going to argue if they had knew Bruno was going to take it 100% of the time, they wouldn't have made it harder for him?
There's no ground to argue that Rashford's action(down to last second) didn't have influence on City players' mental state. For Akanji and maybe Walker, I can accept it but Ederson? No fricking way.

No one's going to take the win away. United was the better team and deserved 3 points but it's also okay to just accept it as a happy mistake.
 

facund

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The image means nothing, go look at the goal. Walker starts from further out but Bruno has the inside lane to get to the ball first. That’s why Walker kind of runs parallel to the shot because he can’t get across.
At no point does Walker slow down or change direction towards Rashford.
Casemiro ball completely takes out the City defenders. It would be ball of the season if he meant it!
Walker doesn’t get ahead of Bruno at al, you should watch the goal again
You are going to keep spinning regardless of what I show you.
 

Eplel

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There's no ground to argue that Rashford's action(down to last second) didn't have influence on City players' mental state. For Akanji and maybe Walker, I can accept it but Ederson? No fricking way.
You can't penalize Bruno for Akanji's and Walker's mental weaknesses.
 

cyberman

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I mean closing down, not necessary blocking the ball. Walker could definitely do that. Are we going to argue if they had knew Bruno was going to take it 100% of the time, they wouldn't have made it harder for him?
There's no ground to argue that Rashford's action(down to last second) didn't have influence on City players' mental state. For Akanji and maybe Walker, I can accept it but Ederson? No fricking way.

No one's going to take the win away. United was the better team and deserved 3 points but it's also okay to just accept it as a happy mistake.
But Walker can’t get near him, he’s trying and can’t do it.
It’s like fans are looking for reasons why it’s offside and whatever reason there is doesn’t involve Walker failing to close down either Bruno or Rashford. He isn’t even anywhere near Rashford anyway and is on the completely wrong side of Bruno and the ball.
If what you say is true and he’s covering Rashford then by definition he should be clearly covering Bruno because Rashford is further away but he’s simply not. That did not happen. If anything it would be the onside player in Bruno blocking Walker from the ball and Rashford simply because he ends up on Bruno’s left hand side
It just doesn’t make sense
 

andy0

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I don't know why anyone is saying the goalkeeper was confused by the player movement.

Confusing the goalkeeper is part of the game, whether feinting to shoot one way then doing another, or hitting something that's going to do an unreadable swerve.

The defenders got this wrong, and coaches in all teams should be using it as a teaching example, even if they've got someone as stubbornly unreceptive and argumentative as Micah Richards.
 
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