This will worry David Moyes a great deal because one of the six West Ham players most in danger of being sent off is also the team’s greatest player.
West Ham supporters can attest that the game of football has undergone significant transformation in recent times, and not necessarily in a positive manner.
West Ham supporters, like most in the nation, are opposed to the technology as it is now employed, despite the fact that VAR is responsible for the team’s first major title in forty-three years.
We’re about to see even more change.
For as part of new IFAB law recommendations, sin bins are going to be tested in professional football.
And it will give West Ham manager David Moyes a lot more to consider – or should that be concern – if he stays in the position for the upcoming campaign.
At the IFAB’s Annual Business Meeting in London on Tuesday, a proposed trial that would allow only the team captain to approach the referee “in certain major game situations” was approved.
Additionally, it was decided that after being successfully used in grassroots football, sin bins “for dissent and specific tactical offences” should be used at higher levels of competition.
What does that actually mean for the Hammers, though?
The best player on the club is among the six West Ham players most likely to be sin-binned, which should worry Moyes a great deal.
Six players from West Ham are among the top 100 foul-committers in the Premier League.
And under the new trial that is rumored to be scheduled for the Premier League next term, they would be most vulnerable to being sin-binned.
It just so happens that Lucas Paqueta, a certain West Ham player, also happens to be their greatest player when it comes to fouls committed.
This season, the Brazilian magnifico of the Hammers has committed 22 fouls in the Premier League, which is tied for sixth most in the entire competition.
Fans of West Ham will not be surprised that El Machin Edson Alvarez, who has 16 fouls, is tied for 22nd place.
Left-back: Emerson has 14 points, which is tied for the 38th-highest total in the Premier League. Michail Antonio has 13 points, tied for the 51st, and fellow Czechs Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal have all scored 11 points, tied for the 89th.
Mohammed Kudus, who has 10 fouls under his belt, is barely outside the top 100. The majority of these would be categorized as “tactical fouls,” which are committed when a player retreats to thwart an opponent attack.
It might be rather detrimental to lose players like Paqueta for up to ten minutes at a time.
It will certainly give Moyes and other managers food for thought ahead of next term.
