Main thing I’m confused about is how all of a sudden it’s OK for an opponent to back into our GK at every single corner without ever being given as a foul - or even an obstruction. I understand that it IS still a contact sport. I also understand that Vicario has been very weak at several set plays. Nonetheless, it’s happening every single corner. I’d be willing to bet that this would be called as a foul elsewhere; for some reason, it being highlighted as a supposed weakness of Vicario means that refs appear to be allowing it. Truly bizarre.
I don’t like the over protection that GKs get. However, the rules MUST be applied uniformly. Therefore, if ‘over protection’ is the way it’s supposed to be, we should be getting that same level of cover. But we arent and it’s costing us.
I felt the same way, but once the mist was gone it was quite clear that the goal was good, as the current interpretation of the rules are.
My main gripe with it now, though, is the lack of consistency. I don't mind a bit less protection for the goalkeepers. Far from it, they are in many ways overprotected, overpapered crybabies who falls over if a striker jumps straight up next to them without even touching them, and they get free kicks for it. So I can understand why Vicario got confused when the Everton-players first stood pushing him, and next came running in from 6 yards to push him as soon as the whistle blew, without being penalised.
However, he did not handle it well. This was done to De Gea when he first arrived also, he was also a little lightweight and got easily flustered if the attackers were infringing his "personal space" on corners. He learned to cope, both by bulking up a little bit, but also by becoming a little smarter.
If you can't handle it yourself, you need to call in a defender to aid you. On several of the corners where Harrison were leaning into Vicario, he could have kept his feet on the ground, moved sideways and forced Harrison to either foul him or fall himself. I don't know too much about goalkeeping, but the one thing I do know is that you can't just jump after the ball like an over-eager Golden Retriever while someone is pushing you below your centre of gravity.
One thing that frustrated me even more yesterday was the moaning, anger and quite frankly absurdly stupid behaviour from both certain Evertonplayers and -fans. Everton invited to a certain dance. It was high energy, hard physicality, and there were tackles and challenges in the air. And I'm fine with that. For a long time we didn't dance. But for a period in the second half we did, and suddenly they were like we were totally, bang out of order! How DARED Richy touch Tarkowski with his elbow in a duel, even though the roles were reversed just before?
