Is tough-tackling ruining the game?

This article was recently published on suite101.com

The issue of tackling is becoming one of the most hotly debated in the modern game. A few high profile, and sickeningly graphic, injuries in recent years have led to uneasy discussions about protecting our quicker, more skilful players and retaining the contact element that makes football such an engaging contest.

Tackling is undoubtedly one of the reasons we love football. Think of a perfectly-timed, goal-saving tackle, like Bobby Moore’s inch-perfect challenge on Jairzinho that still lives on in legend 40 years later- it is a thing of beauty, and a criminally under-celebrated element of the game.

Obviously when these challenges go wrong they do so in style and over the years football authorities have introduced tighter controls to reduce the risk of this. Challenges from behind, two-footed challenges, studs-up challenges and challenges with a raised leg all run the risk of earning the perpetrator a straight red- which, lets be honest, is preferable to what the receiver of such a challenge might get.

With these measures in mind it would be madness to say that tackling is tougher in the modern game than it was- say- thirty years ago. Don Revie’s Leeds United would almost certainly not have achieved nine-consecutive top-four finishes if such tackling had been outlawed in the early seventies- but that’s getting into a whole new area of controversy.

Horrible challenges have been around since the dawn of time- ever since man first kicked a football there has been a slightly bigger man ready to wrap six studs round his knee and shout; “got the ball ref!”. The difference today is that we live in the age of information and the internet; now when someone breaks their leg at a football match it’s not just the couple of hundred people in the terrace nearest the incident that see it in all it’s gory realism, it’s whoever watches Match of the Day that night as well, and whoever clicks on the link on the Sun’s website etc etc.

This issue has leapt back to the forefront of debate following a tackle by “everyone’s-favourite-dutchman” Nigel De Jong on Hatem Ben Arfa that broke the young Newcastle midfielders leg in two places.

While it was clumsy challenge, and I wish Hatem Ben Arfa the speediest of recoveries, I do feel that reaction to it was made worse by De Jong’s preceding reputation as a ‘thuggish player’. De Jong has repeatedly shown himself to be a strong and enthusiastic player but also one who needs to rein in his clumsiness. His sickening challenge on Stuart Holden in a friendly (!) between Holland and the USA earlier this year was evidence of a player who challenges first, thinks later.

This sort of mentality is not going to produce elegant, fantastically timed challenges- just clunky, wince-inducing challenges in which one or both players end up hurt. Then there’s the acrobatics from the world cup final in which the bottom of De Jong’s foot was unfairly fouled by Xabi Alonso’s rib-cage, but that’s a story for another day.

Another public scapegoat is Karl Henry, whose so-late-they-had-to-delay-Match-of-the-Day challenge on Wigan’s Jordi Gomez supplied the British public with some much needed Youtube entertainment but thankfully resulted in no injury.

Karl Henry is captain of a Wolves side whose physicality has come under much criticism this season, not least from a bewildered Newcastle boss Chris Hughton who watched an admirably composed Joey Barton get flattened repeatedly by some wayward challenging from the boys in orange.

Henry is another strong and enthusiastic tackler, but he is also a brilliant one whose well-timed challenges undoubtedly contributed to Wolves’ continued status as a Premiership side. However the challenge on Jordi Gomez was rash; Henry committed far to early against an extremely quick player- the red card he then received was produced so quickly that Henry was off the field while Gomez was still airborne.

Teams that are promoted to the Premiership with realistic designs on staying up frequently employ bully-boy tactics against quicker, more skilful teams to ensure they do so, but it is deeply unfair to say that these teams go out with the sole intention of injuring, and possible ending the career of, a fellow professional.

What is true, however, is that the game now is played at a much quicker pace than it used to be. Players in 2010 are such finely tuned athletes that inch-precision in all areas of the game is now vital. This has led to previously excusable mistakes, for example a heavy touch when receiving a pass, resulting in bone-crunching 50-50s as two players scramble for the resulting loose ball.

As a result an innocent but inexpertly timed challenge becomes potentially catastrophic. Two cases in point being Martin Taylor’s challenge on Eduardo and Ryan Shawcross’ tackle on Aaron Ramsey, both of which resulted in horrific injuries to the tackled player. Shawcross’ reaction to the challenge suggested he hadn’t even expected to catch Ramsey never mind inflict such a horrible injury on the young Welshman. These were two challenges totally lacking in malice.

So now the FA is faced with a balancing act; football is in equal parts a game of deft skill and courageous physicality, this must be maintained. Skilful players must be protected but it is up to the tough-tackling defenders and holding-midfielders to take responsibility for their actions and ensure they promote intelligent and precise challenging, or risk losing the contact side of the sport completely.