Tackle this overcaution

I DIDN’T think David Luiz’s foul on Sead Kolasinac deserved a red card – not so long ago that type of challenge would have earned a player a booking and a stern talking-to.

But the yellow card Luiz (below) was shown for his attempted overhead kick against Arsenal on Sunday was absolutely ridiculous.

The people who deem such an act as worthy of a caution are simply trying to prevent us from seeing wonderful goals in the future and it goes back to the argument that the game is being administered by those who don’t understand what it takes to play it.

It’s football, it’s a physical sport and part of the skill of the game is going into challenges and being able to protect yourself.

We’re creating a sport for babies and we’ve created an environment where Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been shot into superstardom on the basis of never getting tackled.

That’s why I can never put them in the Pele or Diego Maradona category.

Safe physical combat is an art form and one of the reasons we fell in love with the game in the first place.