SOFTLY, SOFTLY: CONCUSSION AND CARDIAC CONCERNS IN FOOTBALL

The English Football Association have announced a new rule that will prevent players who lose consciousness during a game to re-enter play. This is just the latest in a series of moves that is changing football and many other contact sports at all levels.

D. Ray Morton, 6th August 2014.

Uruguay's Álvaro Pereira was one of several knocked out cold playing in the World Cup just gone

The FA will introduce a couple of new things in the upcoming season: World Cup-style shaving foam to ensure defensive walls stay in their place and a very non-World Cup-style “concussion rule” that will involve preventing players who lose consciousness during a match to re-enter play. Indeed, this past World Cup featured at least three head injuries of note that may well have twisted the FA's arm in terms of taking action. Uruguay's Álvaro Pereira, Argentina's Javier Mascherano and Germany's Christoph Kramer were each knocked unconscious at different stages of the competition but were allowed to continue play despite serious risk of injury. The FA's rule will take the power out of the manager's hands and give it to the club's medical staff.

 

Last season, former Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas was heavily criticised for allowing his goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to continue playing despite being knocked out for several minutes during a match against Everton. Villas-Boas did not want to waste a substitution and was satisfied that Lloris continue after he had demanded to do so himself. The criticism of Villas-Boas, who had never won over the English media anyway, was a little over-the-top considering managers wish to win at all costs and there was no rule that insisted he remove Lloris. Now the concerned onlookers have got their wish. Players who pass out will not be allowed to play on and teams will be forced to use a substitute, or in the case that all three are used, the team will have to play on with a man less. One wonders how a truly cynical opposition side could take advantage of such a situation.

Tottenham's Hugo Lloris regaining consciousness after being KO'd against Everton last season

This new rule does not seem ideal. Logic would dictate that, in the event of such an incident, a club might be offered an additional substitution, one which would not impact on their basic right to make three regular changes in a game. It would not be an ideal solution but it would be fairer to a side that have a player injured, by the opposition more than likely, and are not left in the lurch as a result. Concussions are dangerous and football's governing bodies need to be vigilant but this new rule seems like more of a problem than a fix. It should also be noted that although once-off concussions can be serious, children or athletes who have had repeat concussions are at a much higher risk and perhaps such carefulness need not go too far. Football is not exactly a sport where concussion is endemic like in rugby or in fight sports.

Another big thing in football right now is cardiac monitoring. A few incidents in recent seasons have brought this into the spotlight. Fabrice Muamba's brush with death in March 2012, Piermario Morosini's passing in April of that year and Daniel Jarque's death in 2009 all raised flags. Cardiac monitoring is so prevalent in football currently that Queens Park Rangers' Loïc Remy just failed a medical which prevented a move to Liverpool. Is this an overstated risk, however? Professional footballers are playing more than ever and an underlying condition is often either undetected or there is no underlying condition in the first place. Death occurs in endurance sports when athletes, who may have perfectly good cardiovascular health prior to their escapades, simply push themselves too far. Companies are being set up with the express goal to push heart rate monitoring into every facet of sport akin to post-Second World War spiv turning up at your doorstep, peddling their stolen wares. An athlete like Frank Lampard, who has what doctors would describe as a larger-than-normal heart, might not even make it into an academy were he a youth player today.

Although the FA's intention with the unconsciousness rule is in the right place, it proposes too many questions and could become very sloppy indeed. It is important to look after players but they must not be overly-mollycoddled and those who practice over-vigilance must remember that football is not ballet. We do not want twenty-two Petr Čech caps on the pitch.

BARCA MUST BE CRAZY IF THEY'RE SERIOUS ABOUT AVB

BARCA MUST BE CRAZY IF THEY'RE SERIOUS ABOUT AVB

D. Ray Morton, 28th February.

Barcelona have a tendency to be impatient when it comes to falling behind in the title race. Only three points behind leaders Real Madrid, manager Gerardo "Tata" Martino finds himself the object of criticism again after a sorry defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad last weekend which spoiled the joy of beating Manchester City away from home several days earlier. The feeling around Camp Nou is that should Tata fail to secure either the Liga BBVA crown or the Champions League, he will get the axe due to the perception that their playing style has lost a lot of its flair.

Style comes first for Barca which is why it's surprising that Andre Villas Boas' name has been added to the list of nominees likely to take over from Martino. Having managed three major teams so far in his career, his successes have very much epitomised the proverbial mixed bag and each successive job he did was progressively worse. Successful at Porto, his time at Chelsea may have been ended prematurely but it seemed he never won over the dressing room and was written off as a Jose Mourinho "Lite". At Tottenham, his first season was steady, amassing a best Premier League points total for the club but into his second campaign, things turned sour.

Spurs played some of the most turgid, dour football seen at the club in a long time at the start of this season. Many peoples' tips as Premier League dark horses with an outside chance of even mounting a title charge, the North London club struggled to find themselves on the scoresheet and suffered heavy, embarrassing defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Manchester City. Usually setting his team up in a 4-3-3 formation with an unusually high defence line, Spurs were an absolute mess. Their new summer signings failed to make any immediate impact and the result was a team struggling for confidence with no structure or gameplan capable of dismantling even mediocre opponents.

AVB has very much sprinkled his myth around England and has paid the price. Lever arch folders full of tactical instructions, arrows and multi-coloured dots look impressive during the job interview but this was very much against the "Tottenham way" which usually promoted fluidity and creative freedom. Street football rather than bogging players down with overloaded specifics. How AVB's plans could impact Barcelona is anyone's guess but I would not be confident about his chances of achieving success.

Barca, too, play a 4-3-3 with a high line but their attacking players are essentially allowed to invent for themselves. Perhaps AVB's tactics could be effective considering the Catalan club offer better passers of the ball in their squad but one wonders why then Boas filled his midfield earlier this season with immobile destructive bully boy players like Sandro, Moussa Dembele and Etienne Capoue rather than anyone in that Luka Modric/Xavi mould.

Of course, this could just be bored speculation in a slow news week for the press considering they have not had a midweek fixture and only face Almeria at home on Sunday with the main La Liga focus being on Atletico vs Real in the Madrid derby earlier that same day. Quiet news weeks can over-stimulate the imagination, and appointing AVB as Barcelona's next manager should only stay in the realm of nonsensical daydreams.