Gary Neville has suggested that in-play injury substitutions should be introduced in the Premier League to curb time-wasting.
The ex-England ace’s Sky Sports co-star Jamie Carragher launched into a passionate rant about players kicking the ball out of play for the opposition, opposing it and calling for it to be eradicated from the game.
Said discussion was sparked by Arsenal‘s match against Manchester City, where several of Mikel Arteta’s players were accused of trying to maintain their 2-1 lead by feigning injuries after Leandro Trossard saw red. Neville, however, offered a different solution to Carragher’s complaint, proposing that substitutions should be permitted during play, allowing the game to flow.
READ MORE: Liverpool icon bonked Katie Price ‘like a cordless drill’ going ‘bang bang bang’
Click for more of the latest football newsfrom the Daily Star.
Carragher initiated the debate on The Overlap by expressing his frustration with players who kick the ball out of play when an opponent is down, reports the Mirror.
The Liverpool icon responded to colleague Neville’s statement that removing the trend wouldn’t benefit the game, exclaiming: “It’d make it much better. The game’s stopping all the time. People are just bluffing injuries [when] there’s nothing wrong with them.
(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“[It] stops the game. There’s this thing where we’re like, ‘oh, we really feel for our mate on the opposition team, he’s down holding his ankle.’ Just get on with the f***ing game.”
Neville on the other hand feels as though he has a solution for the issue, replying: “I’m going to change that idea. Let the fourth official manage substitutions so that the game doesn’t have to stop, and you can just run on and off.
“So basically, Odegaard’s coming on for Trossard, the fourth official’s there, he gets a message to Trossard, ‘you’re off’ and Trossard comes off.”
Arsenal’s recent 2-2 clash with City lit a fire in Carragher’s belly, as many were quick to accompany him in critiquing Arteta’s side for the methods they used while attempting to hang onto their lead.
(Image: Getty Images)
Myles Lewis-Skelly picked up a yellow card before even touching the ball for interrupting an opposition throw-in. David Raya was also in the firing line for his ‘tactics’, though he dodged a booking, while Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus weren’t as fortunate, seeing yellow before John Stones bagged his last-gasp equaliser.
One of Stones’ team-mates, Bernardo Silva, slammed Arsenal’s approach much like Carragher post-match, stating: “There was only one team that came to play football.
“The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately. But at the end we got a draw, the best we could get considering the context of the last moments of the match. We’re not happy as we wanted the three points, but personally, I’m happy with the way we came to play and faced the game.”