The “Two-Footed” Tackle. Why?
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When former Liverpool defender and modern-day pundit Alan Hansen played football, he never made one. So it was surprising to hear him on Match of the Day this week defending the latest two-footed tackle, which saw Manchester United’s Nani sent-off in the EPL fixture against Aston Villa.
“If you’re sliding in like that,” the lanky Scot said, “the studs have to come up, there’s no other way to do it.” “Well, don’t do it, then,” a watching nation cried.
The two-footed tackle is akin to using an opponent’s leg as a long jump pit. The tackler flies through the air and lands feet first, not on sand (and don’t tell me grains of sand have feelings, too) but real, live human bones, liable in the worst circumstances to break upon impact.
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When I played football, at a low standard even for Sunday mornings, my philosophy was “if he wants the ball that badly, he can have it.” But at the pace of modern EPL football, players don’t always have that choice, and it is a blessing that so few of the tackled have suffered serious injury.
Surely players know that if they jump into such tackles – even if they win the ball as Nani did – then they are likely to be dismissed and, worse, they may cause injury. So what goes through their mind as they take their run-ups to them?
There is usually time to think, and despite John Terry’s recent efforts to prove the contrary, footballers do have something to think with, on a football field at least. So are they thinking “I want to get sent-off” or “I want to hurt him”?
There is no justification for such a tackle, whatever Alan Hansen says. And if a flurry of red cards rids the game of them, good.
Tags:
Nani,
EPL,
John Terry
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