The 54-year-old specialist, who has worked with Watford, Burnley and Everton in the past, and was a pupil of the Nottingham Forest academy during his playing career, seems to have decided to fight a very interesting attribute of English Premier League matches at his home club. If Don Quixote in the romanticized Spain of the 17th century fought against windmills, Dych in the modern Premier League is ready to attack… towels. Yes, yes, you read everything correctly. The current coach Zinchenko was literally disgusted by this type of textiles at the matches of the national championship. And, no matter how strange it looks from the side, and in general, Dych has every right to such conclusions.
Sean Dyche’s crusade against the Premier League side comes after last weekend’s 2-0 away win over Brentford saw the Foresters cement themselves out of the relegation zone with an all-important tournament point in the battle for survival. Despite the victory and, it would seem, all the reasons for a good mood, Sean Dyche was indignant after the game. Moreover, the object of his critical statements, you won’t believe, were towels!
“These towels on the edge: I just can’t stand them,” said the head coach of Nottingham Forest. “I have nothing against the players of “Brentford”: these are the rules. But what kind of nonsense is this: how can the home team have the right to decide whether or not to use touchline towels at Premier League matches?’
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Brentford’s Michael Kayode wipes the ball with a towel before taking a throw-in The essence lies in the procedure that precedes the traditional throwing of the ball into the game from outs. To prevent slippery balls – especially in the winter months – there has been a procedure in England for some time that allows footballers to first use special towels. The Premier League rules include a provision that each time before a game, the home side has the discretion to decide whether or not throwers’ towels will be used in the game. However, the regulation clearly outlines that towels, if the home club decides to use them, must be provided on equal terms to each of the teams – both hosts and guests.
The guests cannot influence this procedure in any way, they can only accept the choice of the hosts. And, on the one hand, there is some logic in this, because for teams with players who know how to use such a game detail as outs very well, it is extremely important that there are no inconveniences in the process, but on the other hand… This kind of maneuver often leads to a delay in time and its wastefulness, disrupting the dynamism of the game. This is exactly what Daich does not like so categorically.
It is interesting that earlier in other English tournaments – for example, in the League Cup or lower divisions played “under the wing” of the English Football League (Championship, League 1 and League 2) – the use of any equipment or device for drying the surface of the ball from moisture has already been banned. But in Premier League matches, this rule still holds, and Sean Dyche seems to have decided to try to destroy it.
“Why do towels continue to cause inconvenience at matches of the English Premier League? They only add problems to the many things that we head coaches have to think about all the time. So no more towels. To hell with them! After all, it is so easy to do, right? You don’t have to be a genius to understand how illogical, unnatural and incomprehensible this rule is. That’s what gives a long throw? It creates the conditions for an attack. It gives time. It creates a delay. There are many different factors.”
It is obvious that all these remarks by Dyche arose after the active use of a towel by Michael Kayode, a full-time kicker in the “Brentford” team, who in the game against the “Foresters” carefully wiped the ball with a textile product every time, while simultaneously thinking about the option for the further development of events and literally driving the head coach of “Nottingham Forest” out of himself.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Sean Dyche rages once again How logical are Dyche’s complaints? In fact, the latest calculations by statisticians confirm the opinion of the “foresters” coach that there are much more pauses in Premier League matches where players use towels before throwing outs. If two seasons ago, the average time required for a throw-in was 15.6 seconds, and in the last EPL draw it increased to 16.1 seconds, now statistics record a further increase in the time taken for throw-ins – up to 17.8 seconds.
Perhaps next season the situation will drastically improve, as the International Football Association Board (IFAB) is going to approve the countdown rule for throw-outs and goal kicks. This is done solely in an attempt to at least somehow reduce situations with time delays and increase the dynamism of football actions on the field.
However, if we return to the Brentford-Nottingham Forest match, after the defeat, the head coach of the Bees, Keith Andrews, did not miss the opportunity to “bite” the opponents, who at a certain point, from the point of view of the coach of the Londoners, began to delay time when entering the ball from the goal or taking free kicks.
“I think it didn’t help us that every goal kick for the opposition took forever, every free kick they took took forever. This is not the reason for our defeat, but simply an observation of the game in terms of the pace and ability to sustain attacks. Where do they come from? [арбітрів] it only took three minutes of overtime, I don’t understand,” Andrews said.
Well, towels are towels, and Sean Dyche, as an experienced coach, also perfectly understands how important all kinds of legal details are in modern football, which make it possible to tactically delay time in situations when it is necessary. Therefore, the current calls of the “Nottingham Forest” coach for a “towel revolution” should hardly be taken so seriously. It is much more important that the IFAB finally come up with effective measures against the frequent time delays, which really kill the spectacle of football, working exclusively for a result in favor of one of the opponents…
Source: sport.ua