GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 15: Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel celebrates with the Premier Sports Cup trophy following the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park on December 15, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
Right, so everyone knows by now that Kasper Schmeichel got injured playing for Denmark against Portugal.
In the aftermath, a lot of folk were at great pains to point something out — he would never have got injured had the linesman simply raised his flag. But linesmen are now encouraged not to do that. And so, for the first time in a long time, this blog finds itself in agreement with people like Marvin Bartley, because we’ve been saying it long enough.
In fact, we said it not that long ago in a blog: when an offside is obvious, the flag should go up at once. The possible consequences of not doing that are clear — our keeper just suffered one of them.
Let’s hope Kasper isn’t badly injured, but eventually, someone will be.
Someone’s going to take a serious one, and it’ll be entirely avoidable. Goalkeepers are more likely to be injured than other players because they have to be braver in those moments. If a player is bearing down on goal, the keeper has to be gutsy. Most of them will come out and challenge for the ball, and that’s why it’s imperative that the linesman takes action as soon as possible to prevent the possibility of injury.
I understand why the rule was changed. We all do. It was changed to give the attacker the advantage. If he’s offside by a fraction, that’ll be caught on review. But if he’s flagged wrongly too early, then he’s been unfairly denied. That’s what this is supposed to prevent — poor decisions influencing games.
But I’m fairly sure this was only meant to affect tight decisions. It was supposed to be implemented when things looked close — when the attacker might have timed it right, or the ball was played just in time.
It wasn’t meant to be used in every situation where an attacker gets in behind. Some of these calls aren’t even close — some are entirely obvious. And everyone in the ground is just waiting on the flag to go up.
The goalkeeper can’t afford to do that. He a different line of sight and it won’t always give him a clear view of where the line is. He has to be alert, and when the ball breaks in his direction he has to decide whether or not to move.
In a situation where the decision is crystal clear, there is no excuse for keeping the flag down. No-one should be interfering or overruling the linesman on that and it would prevent incidents like this one. It would prevent injuries like this one.
We don’t yet know how bad Kasper’s injury is, but it could rule him out for a significant length of time. And the point is, sooner or later — probably sooner — someone will get one of those injuries that keeps them out long-term.
I understand the reason for bringing in the rule, but I’m wholly sympathetic to the argument for kicking it all the way out, and to be honest, kicking it out is an extreme position. It doesn’t need to be kicked out of the game.
It just needs tweaked. That’s all.
A modest change that gives the linesman a bit of autonomy — when an offside is clear-cut, when it’s obvious, they should be able to put the flag up straight away. Give some authority back to the officials.
There will always be a mechanism to slap the wrist of any official who puts the flag up early and gets it wrong, denying a goal. That’s fine. But a linesman should have the credit in the bank to make that call when it’s blatantly offside — without being subject to this stupid and dangerous rule.
Celtic now faces a tough spell without our top goalkeeper.
If he’s out for a while, we’ll have to rely on our backup, and he hasn’t played a lot of games. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of that as you like, but there’s been nothing to justify dropping Kasper in the first place, and so I’ve had no problem with playing the big guy for the vast, vast majority of this season.
But we’ve now run into this problem, and it’s a thoroughly depressing one — depressing because so many of us saw this coming. Maybe we didn’t expect it to involve a Celtic player, but it was on the cards for a while. That this rule hasn’t been tidied up just a little bit… it’s infuriating as well as ridiculous.
Kasper also needs to take a good hard look at himself as well for playing on…
What a fuckin clown he was doing that –
Remember Kasper – It’s CELTIC and therefore by dint Celtic supporters who pays your wages…
What a fuckin week it’s been –
Bad enough the whole Sevco fiasco and entirely self inflicted pig headed one at that…
And now this…
Don’t know wheather Sinasilo will be another Kasper / Holy Goalie if so then fine…
But another Barkas gives me the shivers and if so The Treble could be fucked !
They had used all their subs. Had he gone off, an outfield player would have had to go in goal and they would have been two outfield players down. He obviously felt able to continue.
I’m excited to see Sinisalo get a run of games so we’ll know what we’ve got but I’ve definitely got high hopes he can be pushing Schmeichel next season and prove ready to take over.
The rule is daft and this was inevitable, the trouble is, if you give the authority back to the linesman the flag will start going up when it shouldn’t. He’ll have made a cliched honest mistake while it was obvious to everyone else. Having said that, I do think giving the power to the linesman is the right way to go, we just need to accept there’s no perfect solution.
Anyone know…
1) – If he is actually gonna be out at all…
2) – If so for how long…
3) – If Celtic have assessed him and made any comment…
I don’t look at The Scummy’s who would only make it Celtic Baaaaaaaaaaaaadddd anyway!
Since this guidance came in I (and other refs in my area…we don’t have VAR) have been waiting for an entirely avoidable injury in a striker Vs keeper situation like this. I actually think it was probably a tighter call than you suggest, James, but I agree with the sentiment.
Not that there’s actually anything stopping a flag going up (see: Hatate Vs Huns) early. Especially if the AR is very confident of an offside.
We have a fair few young refs that do AR in our games and when I do the pre match I always tell them not to rush a flag, see whether the offside guy is actually going to interfere with play, an opponent or gain an advantage…. EXCEPT a through ball with a keeper coming out. I want an early flag there. I’d rather a moany striker than an injured player.
It’s the club owners- directors who should be callin for a change. Especially ones like ours now, who have had a key player injured. It’s just as well this has happened now, as opposed tae weeks, or months ago, or it couldve had a big effect on our season. As it stands, ah dont doubt we’ll still get the 3 wins we need from the last 8 games. Hope he can get back fit soon.
As Brattbakk says I think this is something that could benefit us long term.
Getting a good look at our backup to know if when Kasper leaves if we are back to square one of needing a GK or if we have a general in waiting will be interesting.
Whilst I agree that Kasper has given no reason to be dropped I do think he has had a slight dip in form recently but nothing significant so this is maybe a good thing all round (on the basis it is a minor knock that sees him out for 2-3 weeks) if it’s longer that may become an issue if the backup isn’t up to the job.
Totally agree with you about not flagging earlier when it’s obvious. In this case it wasn’t much of a fall and the player didn’t tangle with him. It was a bit of a freak. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious. Scott Bain is one injury closer to being in goal.
No, no,no, fuckity no, no, no.
Muir and Beaton would have a malevolent field day, their flags would be up and down like a brides nightie.
If reinforced rules means less Brother Beaton Bullshit then that’s the answer.
You need only refer to Brother Muir at Hibs and the disallowed goal.
No
No
No
No
No
Fuckin NAAAAW