Holding, wrestling, battling … call it what you will. Corner kicks in the Premier League are becoming dominated by it.
More goals are being scored, but the amount of pushing and pulling has at times verged on the farcical.
Defenders are grappling with attackers, and attackers are tussling with defenders.
Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann told BBC Sport that “something needs to be done”.
“At many corner kick situations, there are often as many as 16 players packed into the six-yard box,” Cann said.
“This, frankly, is becoming a nightmare for the referee team to police.
“We must find a solution to this epidemic.”
Are referees, players or coaches responsible for fixing behaviour?
Or is it going to take a change in the law?
Referees really don’t want to get involved – Moyes
Grappling has dominated the news conferences of managers over the last week. And the frustration appears to be on the rise.
Everton boss David Moyes feels the onus has to be on the referees. He said the lack of action has been “poor”.
Take Everton versus Manchester United last week.
The Toffees had several players standing on top of goalkeeper Senne Lammens. Leny Yoro was pushed into the net by James Tarkowski. Then Harry Maguire got involved too.
“You get the feeling now that referees really don’t want to get involved in any of it,” Moyes said. “It’s really poor that they’ve not tried to deal with it.”
With set-pieces becoming ever more important in the Premier League, it means teams seem to be upping their distraction tactics.
“Attackers crowd the goalkeeper hoping to nullify his movement and effectiveness,” Cann explained.
“Defenders, meanwhile, try to block the attackers’ run and seem more interested in looking at their opponent than the ball in many cases.”
Moyes said that Arsenal have been the trailblazers for these “dark arts”.
“Blocking has become a big part of it,” Moyes added. “Let’s be fair, the best at it – but with style – would be Arsenal.”
It was prevalent in Sunday’s Premier League game between Arsenal and Chelsea. On one corner there were numerous Gunners players holding the player they were marking.
Chelsea conceded two goals from corners in their 2-1 loss at Emirates Stadium. Manager Liam Rosenior said he is now “taking control” of coaching the defending of set-pieces.
Perhaps it has got to the stage where the image of the game is being harmed by players being thrown to the ground time and again.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot thinks it is making the Premier League a poorer product.
“Most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch,” the Dutchman said on Monday. “My football heart doesn’t like it.”
Slot believes that fouls would be given in other leagues. In England, the goal stands.
And it is clearly a successful tactic in England.
The Premier League (27%) has the highest number of set-piece goals in the top five leagues this season. Serie A (24%) is second, followed by the Bundesliga (22%), La Liga (19%) and Ligue 1 (17%).
The Premier League, though, believes it has the threshold in a good place.
At the start of the season, a survey of coaches, captains, referees and pundits were overwhelming in favour of the current threshold for fouls and video assistant referee (VAR) intervention.
The Premier League did place a stronger emphasis on holding, to cover only the most obvious examples.
Seven penalties have been awarded for the offence this season, four after a VAR intervention.
Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) would argue that it only gets highlighted in the media when high-profile cases crop up.
But social media is regularly flooded with images of players being held, and no VAR intervention has been forthcoming.
In supporters’ minds, VAR is penalising microscopic offsides, but missing what they see as clear fouls.
How could football adapt to fix the issue?
Referees do not go into Premier League games blind about each team’s tactics.
Officials are sent a dossier of information by PGMO. It details how each team approaches set-pieces, attacking and defensively.
It is supposed to keep referees ahead of the curve on things like grappling and blocking.
But with the Premier League’s high bar on fouls, much of the holding is allowed.
Fans get frustrated by corners being retaken, but Cann says this is because “grappling often begins before the corner is taken”.
It is not possible to give a foul when the ball is not in play.
Maybe this could change?
“My Saturday afternoons are now spent sitting next to Alan Shearer watching all the Premier League matches,” Cann said.
“Alan’s idea, which I think has some merit, is to change the Law so that once the referee actually blows his whistle to restart the game, the referee can then penalise any subsequent behaviour.
“You wouldn’t have to wait for the ball to be in play to award a penalty.”
Cann has his own idea, too.
“Attackers must start outside the goal area (six-yard box) before the corner is taken,” Cann explained.
“It would solve the issue of the crowded goal area and the goalkeeper being surrounded, blocked and impeded.”
We might be waiting a while for anything to happen, though.
The International Football Association Board (Ifab) met in Wales on Saturday to thrash out the law changes for next season.
Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell batted away questions about grappling.
“It wasn’t something that we specifically talked about,” Maxwell said. “Whether there’s been a change in that type of behaviour during matches, those things happen over the course of a season.
“I’m not sure it’s necessarily getting worse.”
It should be remembered that we are only discussing this because players and coaches are always trying to find that extra edge to score a goal.
It might be that a law change really is needed to stop players throwing each other around as a corner is about to be taken.
Or maybe it is just a Premier League problem.
