Drat had to pause due to clients. One thing that you highlighted is 'game management'. (in it's loosest sense...) Someone, could indeed have cheated and delayed the restart but then, the ref could have added the time and asked them to leave the field for a minute. So you get a bashed player return and lose a healthy one. Last season I felt these 'dark arts' were becoming more obvious and, of course, the 'imbeciles that be' have meddled poorly, to attempt to mitigate some of these behaviours. The number of keepers with cramps in the last phase of a game they were leading, clearly didn't go unnoticed. Against us as we chased games, opposition players were dropping like it was a bad day at the Somme (*Okay there weren't any good days). Yet, now we have a system where a player can be fouled, injured, even maliciously, and after treatment for an obvious injury (not the writhing, rolling, screaming nonsense so loved by our continental cousins) they are subjected to a further time penalty. This gives their opponents (the transgressors) an advantage. If a keeper is injured, they, under the new rules stay on the field but an outfield players must be nominated to depart!! If this is the case with an injury to a keeper, then surely the opposition should also lose a player for the minute too. The reality is that we had a minute to survive and ten players on the field. 9 of them could have been in the box. Bentancur was sent back to fill the gap. Game management isn't just running the clock down, it is seeing the risk of your CB being off the pitch, looking at the clock and knowing that this is the moment to park the bus.
