PL winning manager vs some guy who got famous for writing a blog. I wonder who knows more about football.
Klakson_95 on
I think he probably does tbh
J1m1983 on
Man re-wrote the book on sports science and diet in the modern era, who the is this chuckle brother journo?
martinkem on
Michael “Big Balls” Cox…i like how Journos who have as much football experience as me can look at one of the best football managers and distill their managerial expertise to happenstance.
If the recent struggles of VAR has shown anything, it is that the offside rule as it stands right now is just ridiculous.
TomRuse1997 on
Headline is awful provocative but Wengers offside rule is nonsense in fairness
Nice conceptually until you meet the practicalities laid out here. More subjectivity is the last thing VAR needs.
d3vilm4n60 on
Powers bigger than him are out to make money.
h2g2_researcher on
What he suggests are, I reckon, a mixture of actually good ideas and some things thrown out to generate discussion.
Kick-ins for throw-ins in your own half I think are fine. The idea is to speed up getting the ball in play, and I think it would do that. I’m not overly worried about teams getting what is basically an indirect free-kick in their half.
Taking a free-kick to yourself I also think should be fine. Sure, there are a few more attacking options, but I doubt they’ll be gamebreaking. (While we’re at it, the penalty taker should also be allowed to play the ball again after it touches the goal-frame?)
The corners one is silly, I think, but I’m not sure he’s expecting it to be taken particularly seriously.
The offside one, though, I think will harm the game. It only works if defenders don’t change to adapt, but they will. The way I think VAR would be improved over offsides is taking a leaf from cricket’s book. If the attacker is onside/offside by a few centimetres (and I’ll leave it to the rulemakers to decide an exact number) just say “stick with the on-field call”.
mist3rdragon on
I don’t like Wenger’s offside rule idea either, but I also don’t think there’s any harm in trialling new things to see if you can improve the game. Like isn’t that part of the point of the role he’s in?
ret990 on
Yes. The main issue he has is that the average premier league fan has an incredible appetitite to moan that x y or z aspect of football is shit, but complain twice as loud that any proposed solution to the problem is somehow 20 million times worse because its not 100% perfect so lets just sit here continually complaining about the same things instead.
DerekIsAGooner on
Holy click-bait, Batman!
Getdaphone on
I’ve been getting into hockey a lot more lately and the way they handle offsides is a lot more interesting than football/soccer. If there was an offsides line in the game it would create offensive chaos. However because of more space in the field and low blocks it would make teams sit deeper somehow. I love football don’t get me wrong but I think high tempo games are better to watch than this lull your opponent to sleep control possession no risk style of play that has become popular (I get it ya I am an Arsenal fan and that’s artetas bread and butter but I hate it) ARSENE understood how to make the game entertaining. He’s the reason I love football and Arsenal. Futsal also exists soo I can’t really complain if there are styles of play and sides of the sport that do play the style I like
![[Michael Cox] [@TheAthletic] Does Arsène Wenger really get football?](https://www.eucup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/pPEn5K36tni1I3HT2L0sreofBxm2IckfiBD3isTesAE-1024x683.jpeg "[Michael Cox] [@TheAthletic] Does Arsène Wenger really get football?")
11 Comments
PL winning manager vs some guy who got famous for writing a blog. I wonder who knows more about football.
I think he probably does tbh
Man re-wrote the book on sports science and diet in the modern era, who the is this chuckle brother journo?
Michael “Big Balls” Cox…i like how Journos who have as much football experience as me can look at one of the best football managers and distill their managerial expertise to happenstance.
If the recent struggles of VAR has shown anything, it is that the offside rule as it stands right now is just ridiculous.
Headline is awful provocative but Wengers offside rule is nonsense in fairness
Nice conceptually until you meet the practicalities laid out here. More subjectivity is the last thing VAR needs.
Powers bigger than him are out to make money.
What he suggests are, I reckon, a mixture of actually good ideas and some things thrown out to generate discussion.
Kick-ins for throw-ins in your own half I think are fine. The idea is to speed up getting the ball in play, and I think it would do that. I’m not overly worried about teams getting what is basically an indirect free-kick in their half.
Taking a free-kick to yourself I also think should be fine. Sure, there are a few more attacking options, but I doubt they’ll be gamebreaking. (While we’re at it, the penalty taker should also be allowed to play the ball again after it touches the goal-frame?)
The corners one is silly, I think, but I’m not sure he’s expecting it to be taken particularly seriously.
The offside one, though, I think will harm the game. It only works if defenders don’t change to adapt, but they will. The way I think VAR would be improved over offsides is taking a leaf from cricket’s book. If the attacker is onside/offside by a few centimetres (and I’ll leave it to the rulemakers to decide an exact number) just say “stick with the on-field call”.
I don’t like Wenger’s offside rule idea either, but I also don’t think there’s any harm in trialling new things to see if you can improve the game. Like isn’t that part of the point of the role he’s in?
Yes. The main issue he has is that the average premier league fan has an incredible appetitite to moan that x y or z aspect of football is shit, but complain twice as loud that any proposed solution to the problem is somehow 20 million times worse because its not 100% perfect so lets just sit here continually complaining about the same things instead.
Holy click-bait, Batman!
I’ve been getting into hockey a lot more lately and the way they handle offsides is a lot more interesting than football/soccer. If there was an offsides line in the game it would create offensive chaos. However because of more space in the field and low blocks it would make teams sit deeper somehow. I love football don’t get me wrong but I think high tempo games are better to watch than this lull your opponent to sleep control possession no risk style of play that has become popular (I get it ya I am an Arsenal fan and that’s artetas bread and butter but I hate it) ARSENE understood how to make the game entertaining. He’s the reason I love football and Arsenal. Futsal also exists soo I can’t really complain if there are styles of play and sides of the sport that do play the style I like