General Gamesmanship, game management, and drinks breaks

[SteMerritt]

VAR??

I'm not supportive of VAR, for exactly that reason. It's something that has been brought in purely because of the worry a wrong decision could cost somebody money, not as an improvement to the game.

Guess I'm just old school.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Football would be much better if they just stopped the clock as soon as the ball went dead/out of play etc. It would literally destroy any and all forms of timewasting, kicking the ball away, slow subs walking away etc. I suppose people still could use those tactics to break up a team’s flow, but at least you’d get the full 90 mins per game.

I suspect that if we had a clock (an idea I am quite keen on), the length of it wouldn't be 45 mins per half. I saw stats that the ball is actually in play for only about an hour of the 90 mins in most games.

 

[ljs]

Possibly apocryphal, but as the story goes they tried this when introducing "sawker" to the US with the NASL. First game was net 3 hours long and everyone went home apparently.

Did they try to do 90 minutes of ball in play? Probably also stopped for ad breaks at every throw in!

If stopping a clock then I would think a game would be 60 minutes of 'play'.

 

[ljs]

Just did my own bit of timekeeping, as I've just re-watched the first half of the Bolton game on ifollow.

I stopped the clock at every free kick and each time the ball went out of play.
Four goals, one sub and the ref added two minutes on. I'd say no time wasting or injuries, and just a couple of corners.

Any guesses for how long the ball was actually in play?

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Although I like the idea of a game clock, it would be a disaster if it legitimised frequent stopping for team chats, drinks, massages and for all I know haircuts in the middle of the games. Games would go on for ever - gridiron is (I think) four 15 minute quarters and goes on interminably at times. The *shortest* NFL game was 2.5 hours, the longest was nearly 4! Imagine watching us play someone really dull on a Saturday afternoon and it not finishing until 7pm...

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Just did my own bit of timekeeping, as I've just re-watched the first half of the Bolton game on ifollow.

I stopped the clock at every free kick and each time the ball went out of play.
Four goals, one sub and the ref added two minutes on. I'd say no time wasting or injuries, and just a couple of corners.

Any guesses for how long the ball was actually in play?

20 minutes (optimistic!)?

 

[ljs]

20 minutes (optimistic!)?

Was actually 25 minutes 30 seconds.

I thought it would have been more in a free flowing half. For about the first 15 minutes the ball was only in play about 50% of the time.

I may have to watch the Portsmouth second half to compare!

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Was actually 25 minutes 30 seconds.

I thought it would have been more in a free flowing half. For about the first 15 minutes the ball was only in play about 50% of the time.

I may have to watch the Portsmouth second half to compare!

Ha , my original guess was going to be 26 minutes and then I changed it! I think there were stats about some Prem games having about an hours play in them...

 

[ljs]

Ha , my original guess was going to be 26 minutes and then I changed it! I think there were stats about some Prem games having about an hours play in them...

60 minutes would be at the upper end I'd imagine.

 

[tonyw]

If there's a team faking injuries systematically so that they can have a drinks break and a team meeting (like Stevenage under Westley or, it sounds like, Southampton this year) - then what it's going to take is a referee brave enough to ignore them and wave play on. The nonsense would soon stop if their opponents pinged the ball into an empty net because the keeper was sitting down on the edge of his box, and the rest of the team were huddled at the sideline enjoying a nice gel capsule!

(either that, or they'd just get really good at faking head injuries. Would have to go consult with Dean Richards from his Harlequins days)

Just adding the time on at the end isn't enough because it's not just about time-wasting, it's also about breaking up the flow of the game.......

 

[DevilsAvocado]

Was actually 25 minutes 30 seconds.

I thought it would have been more in a free flowing half. For about the first 15 minutes the ball was only in play about 50% of the time.

I may have to watch the Portsmouth second half to compare!

If you can stomach it the 2nd half at Accrington is probably even less.

 

[MarkG]

If there's a team faking injuries systematically so that they can have a drinks break and a team meeting (like Stevenage under Westley or, it sounds like, Southampton this year) - then what it's going to take is a referee brave enough to ignore them and wave play on. The nonsense would soon stop if their opponents pinged the ball into an empty net because the keeper was sitting down on the edge of his box, and the rest of the team were huddled at the sideline enjoying a nice gel capsule!

(either that, or they'd just get really good at faking head injuries. Would have to go consult with Dean Richards from his Harlequins days)

Just adding the time on at the end isn't enough because it's not just about time-wasting, it's also about breaking up the flow of the game.......

I imagine it would need some sort of referees' directive. Currently the main issue seems to be protection of players from head injuries and I don't think that will change. We've already had the change regarding players leaving the pitch from the nearest touchline rather than the longest walk, and also players being treated on or off the pitch, and the situation where they roll back on to the pitch.

 

[gingerox]

Can't see such a major change happening anytime soon, but would be really interesting to see a friendly which was 60mins, clock stopped when ball is dead.

We could invite over another Indonesian team in summer, stick it on Mola again + big it up as a "world first"?

 

[NorthWestOx]

Was actually 25 minutes 30 seconds.

I thought it would have been more in a free flowing half. For about the first 15 minutes the ball was only in play about 50% of the time.

I may have to watch the Portsmouth second half to compare!

I don't think the ref didn't add on enough time for the Portsmouth 2nd half.
2 goals, 5 bookings, 6 subs (in normal time), 4 1/2 minutes treatment for the head injury plus cry baby was down for another minute.
Don't think any time was added on for the constant time wasting.

 

[NorthWestOx]

If you can stomach it the 2nd half at Accrington is probably even less.

How slow was there fan in the seats getting the ball back?

 

[DevilsAvocado]

How slow was there fan in the seats getting the ball back?

Fans, players, they were all at it.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

On game management,it does frustrate me when there is a genuine injury to a player on the pitch and most of the other sides will be called over by the manager and he will get them to regroup and tell them where they are going wrong. Under KR we never seem to do this one or two players may have a drink and he may have a word with them.
Classic case of this was against Sheffield Weds about 20 mins in one of their players goes down by that time they should have been 3 up and they were completely bossing the game. KR did not call the team over he may have had a word with a couple of players but obviously something needed to change. It did at half time but by that time we should of been out of the game.
Think this needs looking at

 

[werthersoriginal]

On game management,it does frustrate me when there is a genuine injury to a player on the pitch and most of the other sides will be called over by the manager and he will get them to regroup and tell them where they are going wrong. Under KR we never seem to do this one or two players may have a drink and he may have a word with them.
Classic case of this was against Sheffield Weds about 20 mins in one of their players goes down by that time they should have been 3 up and they were completely bossing the game. KR did not call the team over he may have had a word with a couple of players but obviously something needed to change. It did at half time but by that time we should of been out of the game.
Think this needs looking at

However we won the game. As I recall we changed formation before half time too, maybe the players he spoke to passed on the message. So what different thing should have been done?

 

[Scotchegg]

We changed our formation after around 35 minutes against Sheffield Wednesday after Robinson spoke to a few key players on the touchline. So probably not the best game to use as an example as we did exactly what was needed.

 

[gingerox]

Not putting my tin foil hat on yet, but wonder if Taylor(?) was told to go down shortly before we scored our first to allow a break. Think its fair to say Charlton started better, not sure if KR changed anything during the little team talk but certainly worked out for us.