MOT View: Graeme Souness absolutely right to cast doubt over reported PL restart tactic
Leeds United are still not really any closer to knowing for certain if and when their season will resume amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
A report from the Mirror on Wednesday evening suggested that the Championship season was on track for a return – maybe even before the Premiership – but a tweet from Phil Hay has also detailed how any resumption of training has been pushed back until May 25th at the earliest.
Another huge factor in how the Whites’ season pans out, and more specifically whether their promotion hopes will be realised, is how the top flight is resolved.
As examined by MOT Leeds News in recent days, the simplest solution – and the one that would presumably give Marcelo Bielsa’s men the best chance of going up without the need for a legal battle – would be if Premier League clubs can play their remaining fixtures as initially planned.
But while authorities are striving to make that happen, Graeme Souness has lashed out at their latest reported plan to increase player safety.
A report from the Telegraph claims that the Premier League will instruct players to turn their heads away when they are tackled by an opponent.
And Souness is having none of it.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “[The guidelines have] been written by someone who has never played the game and doesn’t understand the game.
“So you’re meant to make your tackle and turn away? What if you make the tackle and end up with the ball at your feet?
“That’s the daftest thing I’ve heard so far about us returning to football.”
Souness isn’t the only pundit to express an opinion that could cast doubt over the plan either.
Speaking to The Sun, Owen Hargreaves has assured readers that players will be “smashing into each other” as soon as Bundesliga action resumes in Germany this weekend.
How on earth are you meant to get players to turn their heads away from a tackle in that kind of situation?
It would mean a complete reprogramming of the way that they are hardwired to play – essentially breaking the habit of a lifetime in just a handful of training sessions.
And if that plan is thrown out of the window, as it should be, then suddenly the perceived risk to the players will go back up, and the likelihood of matches being played will go back down.
That could then have a domino effect on top flight clubs finishing their fixture schedules, and on Leeds being promoted properly.
If the Premier League are serious about getting players back on the field in the relatively near future, they need to be coming up with ideas that are much more sensible than this kind of nonsense.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Don’t deserve to be promoted’ – PL striker confirms fallback plan to block Leeds promotion.