There have been comments made by some players that taking corners these days is fraught with problems as you have to cope with restricted room, support staff and photographers and the main issue of 2 different surfaces- grass on the pitch and astro-turf around the pitch perimeters. All of which make corner taking more of an issue these days.
That's without factoring in the enthusiastic assistant referee who stands right on top of you and of course the dogs abuse that the taker receives from the home supporters in the corner of the pitch where it is being taken from!
I wouldn't volunteer to take them!!

Your first 2 paragraphs do highlight some issues I hadn't appreciated.

The verbals have been there since time began, of course, and given that the line-o stands so close, why don't they enforce the one rule that they are responsible for, is the question.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Perhaps the next developed skill will be - ways to waste time whilst keeping the ball in play without getting booked for time wasting.

Hopefully midweek games will go back to a more traditional 7.30 pm kick off (instead of 8pm) in the knowledge that the game will go on longer than it previously used to - thinking of families trying to get kids home after the game on a school night.

Jorden Ayew is forever limping

I know one thing they could do to discourage time wasting, if a player goes down injured, obviously if it’s clearly not serious, let the physio on and then carry on. They do it in Rugby, they just play on around the physio and stricken player. I’m sure those rolling round like they’d been shot would soon jump up if they weren’t the centre of attention anymore and they’d soon learn it’s a waste of time feigning injury anyway

Edited by monkey (08 Aug 2023 11.31am)