Burnley boss Scott Parker believes the new eight-second rule for goalkeepers will change the way teams look to play.
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Parker had no qualms with Michael Oliver’s decision to punish Clarets stopper Martin Dubravka during the season opener against Tottenham, with the clock suggesting the 36-year-old held onto the ball for 12 seconds in total – resulting in the awarding of a corner.
But he does believe it could cause a quandary for managers, commenting: “I think it's a tough rule, to be honest with you.
“If you're facing a corner, for instance, your whole team is down defending a corner and your keeper gets the ball, physically you're just going to have to boot it back into your other half.
“I'm not justifying the one at the weekend, because that was very clear. I'm not saying that, but eight seconds is not a long time to get up the field and actually try and set something up to try and regain.
“It's definitely something we've thought about because it's something that is definitely going to come into play. We're going to have to try and work out in those situations [what to do], because normally it's a dead ball and you can set positions on the pitch, you can set territory or you can set something up.
Martin Dubravka became the first Premier League goalkeeper to fall foul of the new eight-second rule (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
Martin Dubravka became the first Premier League goalkeeper to fall foul of the new eight-second rule (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
“But as I said, if your whole team is down defending a corner, you physically can't…no-one's up the field. So rather than roll it out in your own six-yard box and put yourself at huge, huge risk, you're just going to have to boot the ball to an empty space with no players.
“It's certainly something we're going to look at because of this new rule that has come in.”
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