Graeme
Souness says the suggestion that players should turn their face away after
tackling is the daftest thing he has heard so far about football's return.
According to a report in the
Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, the
Premier League will detail significant "cultural changes" that must be
accepted by players for football to return, including suggestions that
players should turn their face away as they get up from a tackle and to
avoid face-to-face contact where possible.
But speaking on The Football Show,
Sky Sports pundit Souness
criticised the suggestions, claiming players will not be able to focus on
such a change.
"[The guidelines have] been written by someone who has never played the game
and doesn't understand the game," said Souness. "So you're meant to make
your tackle and turn away? What if you make the tackle and end up with the
ball at your feet? That's the daftest thing I've heard so far about us
returning to football.
"When you're playing football at the highest level, you get yourself to a
place where you're only focused on the next five seconds, that's how you get
through 90 minutes. You haven't got time to think about anything else.
"Corner kicks, free-kicks... you have to look at the man. That isn't going
to change. Defenders are paid to keep the ball out of their net, that's
their focus.
"The only thing that may change is the celebration. But the rest of the game
cannot change. You're in the moment.
"It's not a rule, it's a suggestion, a recommendation. But if you're a
player, you're only interested in what is a metre in front of you, and
you've been programmed like that for many years."
Neville: Impossible to change behaviour
Also speaking about the suggestion, Gary Neville says suggestions like these
are a result of a raft of misinformation and poor communication coming out
of the Premier League, and the Sky Sports pundit also fears it would be
impossible for players to change their behaviour in this way on the pitch.
"If you are a player fearful of coming back, this story would make you more
fearful," said Neville. "Even a player who wants to come back, that might
make that player worried. It's instinctive, and as Graeme says, it's
nonsense.
"This is what happens when you have an information vacuum. Misinformation
and a lack of communication has occurred from day one here. Players are
finding things out in the media, whether it's their 30 per cent deferrals,
or having to turn their heads in tackles, which might be complete nonsense,
but when you don't communicate properly and openly with players and the
public, you end up with this vacuum and misinformation.
"I don't think they're going to have an easy ride with the captains on the
call on Wednesday, I think some of them are going to give them a difficult
time. There has to be a continual journey that you bring people on when
you're deciding things like this.
"What do you do at a corner when you're face-to-face, so close that you can
smell their breath, as bad as it seems, but you can smell the player's
breath! If we're saying that is putting players at risk, they shouldn't be
playing football! That would make me incredibly fearful, but I'm imagining
it's not true, so we're speculating here.
"It's impossible to change behaviour on a pitch. Impossible."
Webber: By the time we play, this won't be
the case
Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber says he would not be
comfortable with players having to change their technique, but insists we
are at an early stage of the guidelines, and believes these suggestions will
be off the table by the time football returns fully.
He told The Football Show: "At the moment, the Premier League are only
talking about the first stage in returning to training. By the time we get
to full contact training and games, I genuinely believe these things will be
off the table - because if not, we're changing the rules of football, we may
as well have 12 or 13-a-side if we're going to start changing the rules.
"This is stage one. As we move through it, some of these more slightly silly
things will come away from it naturally. But it's trying to get this thing
up and running, and if that's something which appeases the government...
well, we can't tackle anyway at the moment because there's no contact.
"I wouldn't read too much into that. It doesn't overly concern me because by
the time we get to it, it won't be the case.
"Would I be happy sending a player into a full-contact training session or
game with that rule, well, no. Because that fundamentally changes the tackle
technique which maybe the player has done all his life which could cause a
player to get injured or an opposition player to get injured.
"We keep saying safety is paramount here, not only COVID, but the sport
itself has to be safe. We can't do anything to make it worse."
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