Everton vs Man United controversy sparks plea for Premier League rule change
Ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett believes the governing bodies have to address grappling from corners in the wake of Everton’s defeat to Man United.
Everton hosted United at Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first ever time on Monday night, but it didn’t mark the start of a new chapter in positive fashion for the Toffees.
David Moyes‘ side were beaten 1-0 by Michael Carrick’s men, after Benjamin Sesko came off the bench to score the winning goal with 71 minutes on the clock.
The result pushes Everton further away from the European spots, with the Toffees now sitting ninth and eight points behind Chelsea in fifth, and 11 behind United in fourth respectively.
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What did Keith Hackett say about Everton v United rule change?
Monday night’s game between Everton and United was far from a classic meeting between these two rivals, with just seven shots on target between both teams across the entire 90 minutes.
Everton’s most likely avenue to goal came by the way of corner-kicks, with the Toffees winning 10 of them compared to United’s one.
However, they were not only largely wasteful, with Red Devils keeper Senne Lammens eating a lot of the deliveries up, but it also produced some chaotic scenes inside the box, with players grappling and tussling with one another.
It’s becoming an ever-increasingly common site for players to throw each other around from corners, with referees largely allowing the incidents to go unpunished, much to the frustration of Hackett.
Speaking exclusively with Goodison News, the former PGMOL chief believes it’s time for English football’s governing bodies to come together and put and end to these routine scenes from corners.
“How can the game resolve the issues around the rugby-style play at corner kicks? Here are some suggestions,” Hackett said.
- “A meeting needs to take place between the PGMOL, the FA, the League Managers Association, the PFA.
- ”This meeting needs to have an aim to start to reduce the amount of grappling at corner kicks.
- ”Referees must be instructed to penalise these offences by adopting a draconian approach.
- “Referees will be instructed to stop warning players that start to offend before the kick is taken
- ”If grappling takes place before the kick is taken, issue a yellow card to the offending players.
“We were promised at the start of the season that the PGMOL will take a stronger approach: this never happened.
“To the IFAB (International Football Association Board), I suggest that they look to introduce a law change that follows along the same lines has the current law on set-piece free-kicks. This law states the following:
“Where three or more defending team players form a ‘wall’, all attacking team players must remain at least one metre (one yard) from the ‘wall’ until the ball is in play.
“I suggest that this same law be applied at corner kicks. Something needs to be done because action by players at corner kicks is in the gutter and we want to see football not rugby-style action. We need referees to apply the law.”
Everton need to improve at attacking set-pieces
Set-pieces are back in fashion in the Premier League, with long throws now a weapon in most teams’ arsenals, and set-piece coaches the trendy new dugout role.
However, Everton haven’t quite caught on to this new trend yet, with just seven goals scored from set-piece situations in the league so far this term.
Only Man City (six), Nottingham Forest (six), Brentford (six) and Wolves (five) respectively have scored fewer than the Toffees in this department.
On the flip side though, Moyes’ men have only conceded six times from set-pieces this season, with only Wolves (five), Brentford (five) and Brighton (five) shipping fewer respectively.
So, this is perhaps an element of their game that Everton need to address and work on over the summer, as they do have a host of players in the squad that should be scoring more goals from these situations.
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