The Everton boss said the tactics his side deployed from corners against Manchester United on Monday were a reaction to other teams enjoying success from being physical
Senne Lammens clears the ball during the Premier League match between Everton and Manchester United at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Senne Lammens clears the ball during the Premier League match between Everton and Manchester United at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
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David Moyes believes the chaos now seen in penalty boxes across the Premier League is the result of the officials failing to crack down on corner kick ‘wrestling’.
Everton were accused of being "a bit over the top" by Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens after he was subjected to a barrage of corners dropped under his bar as players tussled around him when the clubs met on Monday night.
Lammens kept the Blues at bay, helping the visitors to survive 10 corners to leave Hill Dickinson Stadium with three points.
Moyes has since conceded he wanted his team to approach set pieces with more variety as they sought an equaliser. But of the common sight of players grappling from corners, he said: “It should never have gone to this situation.”
Moyes suggested managers were adopting the heavy-handed tactics because they had seen other sides enjoy success and, with no crackdown having followed, corners were now a grey area where the opportunity to be physical was an advantage clubs would inevitably seek to exploit.
The Blues were themselves undone from corner kicks in home defeats to Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur - the tone of the Spurs loss set by a goal on half-time that stood despite clear contact on Jordan Pickford.
Speaking ahead of Everton’s trip to Newcastle, Moyes said: “It has been allowed to be let go, whether it be blocking of goalkeepers or blocking of defenders, and you get the feeling now that referees really don’t want to get involved in any of it.
“It is nearly wrestling to an extent, which it shouldn’t be. It should never have gone to this situation but I think it’s been really poor that they’ve not tried to deal with it well enough and stop it.”
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Asked whether the approach - including that taken by his own players against Man Utd - was “anti-football”, the 62-year-old said the wholesale adoption of it that night was not his plan but that he struggled to get the message to vary their deliveries to his team in the frenetic final minutes.
But on why so many clubs were attacking corners in the same way, he said: “You are now allowed lots of blocking, for example. In my day if you blocked someone it would have been a free-kick. But blocking has become a big part of it.
“Let’s be fair, the best at it – but with style – would be Arsenal: good delivery, good style but ultimately there’s a lot of dark arts in it such as blocking the goalkeeper from the back or the front, blocking defenders and making it difficult for them to be your key headers of the ball.
“It is a big thing in football but I do think the level of refereeing has let that part of the game drop.
“And managers, if we see somebody else doing it and not getting punished for it, then we are all on it.”
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