Leniency of referees is turning game into rugby
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expressed alarm that English football had veered from non-contact volleyball or basketball to rugby with its lenient refereeing approach following what he thought was a clear foul in the build-up to Southampton’s goal.
Jack Stephens stepped across Bruno Fernandes, knocking him down, before Che Adams’s shot deflected off Fred and past David de Gea. The United players were furious as Fernandes lay on the ground, and while Solskjaer was unhappy with his team’s immediate reaction, he joined Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, in questioning the new refereeing approach.
“We can’t go from one extreme, from volleyball or basketball last year, to rugby,” Solskjaer said. “I like the more lenient way – it’s more men’s football – but it’s a clear foul, he goes straight through Bruno. You can see early on with the fans as well, it gets the crowd going when you fly into a few tackles, and we did suffer a few tackles.”
Solskjaer also warned that the added leniency would cause injuries, and accused Southampton of unfairly rough tactics. “You know what they are going to do, kick our players, and there are quite a few fouls the referee has let go,” he said. “If that is the way they want to go, we will get injuries. Hopefully we can find a middle way.”
Of his team’s hesitancy and apparent expectation that Craig Pawson, the referee, would award a foul, Solskjaer said: “We should do better. If you don’t get a foul, we should make a block, put a body on the line and make sure there is no shot on target.
“We did well to get the goal, build pressure, and we had another five or six minutes with a good spell. Then we lost our way a little bit.”
Klopp had suggested following his team’s 2-0 win against Burnley on Saturday that the Premier League would turn into “wrestling”, after highlighting a series of unpunished challenges. “There’s no fouls any more?” he said. “We have to stick to protecting the players. Watch wrestling if you like those things.”
United striker Mason Greenwood was adamant that Fernandes had been fouled. “I think it’s come through the back of him – if there’s a foul, there’s a foul,” he said.
Ralph Hasenhuttl, the Southampton manager, said he supported the new approach and hoped it would reward what he called Southampton’s “aggressive, pressing” style. “I’m happy not every touch is a foul,” he said. “This is what the Premier League was famous for. It is more robust – it is a good thing.”