An odd situation just occurred in this game where Brentford's Brian Mbeumo hit the post with a penalty, and as the ball came back to him, Marc Guehi nipped in and cleared the ball out for a corner. I didn't know they used VAR to check for encroaching on the penalty (as I don't watch premier league that much), and Guehi was adjudged to have been inside the D when the penalty was taken. Had he not, and had Mbeumo managed to get to the rebound first, any goal would have been disallowed as he'd have had 2 touches from the penalty before anyone else. Of course the decision is correct to retake the penalty due to encroachment, however I've never seen a penalty in effect 1,2 off the post before.
Prior to Mbeumo striking the retake, two Brentford players (Lewis-Potter and Wissa I think) can be seen to celebrate, running away with arms raised. A deliberate attempt to distract the keeper. What's the game come to when management and teams will resort to things like this. Some will say it's clever, I despair.
On the contrary, there’s the keepers who do all they can to put off the striker before they take the pen such as digging holes in penalty spot, coming out to get in their face and so on. Those sort of things don’t really bother me as any sports are as much mind games as they are physical games. it’s more the blatant cheating like diving that I can’t stick with.
You mistyped Worse there nip, had to google their kit but it’s hundreds of times better than the shocker of ours
I didn't think it was a penalty for that, but I thought Hughes handball was more blatant. I get he was only a couple of yards away and his arms were within his "silhouette", but he's changed the direction of the ball with his hand.
Just for the avoidance of doubt @Kiz - I'm not saying 'keepers antics like the ones you describe are ok, I hate those too. I commented on it because it's the first time I've seen it. I see it all as cheating though rather than mind games. It's just degrees of cheating imo.
I thought the powers that be decreed eons ago, that the run-up should be one fluid motion, with no stopping. I see that many are on the edge of the interpretation of the letter of the law these days.
Once upon a time one of the laws of the game was “Ungentlemanly Conduct”. Sadly, this has been replaced with some pc tripe. Back then things like simulation, which is cheating, were deemed “ungentlemanly conduct”. We see players collapsing, rolling around and holding their face when an opponent’s arm has not been anywhere near their face. VAR should ask the ref to review on the monitor and issue a red card under the newly introduced law of “ungentlemanly Conduct”.
