In a season which has already seen many horrific injuries, several football commentators have been asking- is the art of tackling dead? After the dirtiest world cup final ever in the summer and already two broken legs this Premier League season it would certainly seem so.

 

Arsene Wenger came out a few weeks ago and said that some players did not know how to tackle and it was injuring his players. At the time many people said (me included) that he was just moaning and trying to influence referees. But for once I am starting to agree with him.

With the game becoming more and more athletic and the players getting bigger and stronger, is it any wonder why there are so many bad injuries. With players like Nigel De Jong and Karl Henry steaming in you are bound to end up with bad injuries.

With the game getting so quick there are going to be lots of miss-timed challenges. Take Arsenal for example, they play the most attractive style of football in the Premier League but it is also the quickest. Is this the reason for the amount of injuries Arsenal themselves get. They move the ball so quick that the defenders are just too slow and catch them- because when they make the tackle the ball has already gone. So are Arsenal the architects of their own injury?

Also Arsenal again are the lightest team in the Premier League, does this have a reason for all their injuries? Is it that they just don’t have the strength to cope with the physicality of the other teams which then contributes to their high rate of injuries? After all the Premier League is the most physical and quickest league in the world.

Danny Murphy made a public outburst at the weekend that managers were to blame. He said that certain managers were sending their players out so pumped up that it was inevitably going to lead to some bad injuries. This does throw up an interesting point, is the manager to blame and should he take the responsibility if his players go out there and hurt someone?

However, do the problems go deeper and do players and young players get taught how to tackle properly? I heard an ex-pro say that you cannot teach tackling but surely that cannot be true? I mean it can’t be a natural given surely? You must be able to teach the technique of a tackle.

Personally I think the scissor tackle is to blame. This is when the leading leg goes in front of a player to get the ball and the trailing leg follows through behind the opposing players legs. This tackle has already accounted for Bobby Zamora and Hatem Ben Arfa’s broken legs this season. Is it any wonder when a player wraps his legs round another’s at the pace players are running that their legs brake? It is like the spear tackle in Rugby that has been outlawed because driving someone onto their spine causes broken backs. So should the FA and FIFA step in?

Pitches and football boots are getting the blame as well. Pitches are artificially made today and are woven together. So this means there is very little give in the pitches. Boots also have blades on the bottom of them, which are designed to give more traction to a player when running. But when a player gets tackled the feet can get stuck and then the leg snaps because there is no give so the leg gives instead. Football boots have been criticised for a long time because they are so light that many people think they contribute to metatarsal injuries.

So I wonder how many more serious injuries will occur before the FA or FIFA act. Is it going to take an injury to Lionel Messi or Wayne Rooney before they do? Will they change coaching techniques or pitches? One thing is for sure, there will be more injuries before anyone thinks about acting, and I just hope it doesn’t happen to the key players that make the Premier League great.