I REALLY felt for Hugo Ekitike getting his marching orders after celebrating a goal by taking his shirt off.
The yellow-card rule has come from the International Football Association Board and is designed to prevent time-wasting, covering club sponsors, provoking opposing teams and all that rubbish.
It really is just a stupid rule. Who does it offend?
I sort of understand if you’ve got offensive messaging or political advertising on a T-shirt or vest under your shirt and you show that during a game.
I remember Paul Tait in the Football League Trophy final in 1995 scoring a winning Golden Goal for Birmingham at Wembley against Carlisle.
He celebrated by taking off his shirt to reveal a T-shirt that said: “Birmingham City s**t on the Villa”.
I can see why someone may have been booked for that!
But if you score a goal, players are ecstatic — of course they’re going to take their shirt off and swing it around their head if they feel like it! It’s just the heat of the moment.
I took mine off when I scored ‘that’ goal for Watford against Leicester in the play-off semi-finals.
To be honest, I was lucky not to get a double yellow because I also jumped into the crowd after stripping off!
But to punish players for that is just stifling the passion in the game, making it more sterile, and you lose that pure unpredictability and pandemonium around the best part of football — goals.
Instead of giving them a yellow, which can lead to ludicrous suspensions or even sendings-off — as with Ekitike, who had already been booked in Tuesday’s tie against Southampton — just fine the player after the match.
Most would be happy to pay it, even if it does encourage some who don’t want to be out of pocket to stop doing it.
It’s really strange, especially as we have no issues with players whipping their shirts off to swap with an opponent at the end of the game.
What’s the difference? On a wider note, where have all the great celebrations gone? Right now, we have four basic ones that are popular.
You’ve got Viktor Gyokeres’ mask, Erling Haaland’s meditation, Kylian Mbappe’s crossed arms and Cristiano Ronaldo’s jump and spin in the air as he screams: “Siu!”.
They are all just a bit dull. Surely the world of football can think of some better ones — or bring back some absolute belters.
Robbie Keane’s roly-poly, Obafemi Martins’ numerous backflips. Where have these gone?
It’s a sad reflection of where the game is going — a real lack of personalities who try something different or more imaginative to entertain the crowd.
As for Arne Slot’s reaction to Ekitike’s costly celebration against Southampton — calling it “stupid” and being angry because he made the goal all about him — he’s done this for two reasons.
Firstly, he is trying to keep his feet on the ground, because he knows at some point he is going to have to drop him when Alexander Isak is fit and firing. He can’t have Ekitike going from thinking he’s the king of the Kop to watching from the sidelines. There’s an element of trying to control his emotions this season.
And secondly, Slot knows that right now, Isak is not ready to play a full 90 minutes, so to have Ekitike missing is a real kick in the teeth and will cause some headaches.
Isak will not be fully up to speed until after the next international break and will need to be brought off after 60, 70 or 80 minutes over the coming weeks — so he needs someone to share the load with him.
So who does Slot bring on in the short term with Ekitike out? Federico Chiesa is a good kid — but is he just the same?
Slot understands Liverpool have not been at their best despite sitting top of the league and they need to kick on. Some people will consider his reaction harsh — but I can see why he is so frustrated with Ekitike.
That’s just a manager’s way of slapping a player across the wrist and saying: “Come on, I need you. And don’t get too big for your boots.”
Read the full article here