15 Jun 2021 21:45:14
Quick question as there's something that's been doing my head in a lot lately. when is the assistant referee supposed to flag? It seems like they wait way too long and it's confusing. Mbappe scored earlier and yes it was offside but he collected the ball, cut inside then shimmied and put the ball in the net before the flag went up. Surely there's no benefit to the delay, it must really frustrate the players because it does me 🤷‍♂️.

1.) 15 Jun 2021
15 Jun 2021 21:49:29
Someone will get serially injured one day totally unnecessarily. Does my head in too Tim.

2.) 15 Jun 2021
15 Jun 2021 21:55:35
They are supposed to flag when they see the offence happen.

However, with VAR they have been advised to keep the flag down and allow play to develop while VAR checks to confirm. Unless it's an obvious offside.

The aim is to give advantage to the attacking team by not flagging close offsides where the play may be onside.

3.) 15 Jun 2021
15 Jun 2021 22:16:22
As for when does the linesman flag, if they think there is a goal scoring opportunity they are now supposed to wait until goal is scored or chance has gone.

I suppose it stops mistakes by officials preventing goals but as Ken says there is the other side of the coin too, and being such an important incident that can effectively win or lose the game its quite possible a moment when defender or attacker may be prepared to take the most risk as well.

4.) 15 Jun 2021
15 Jun 2021 23:04:08
It’s so an incorrect flag doesn’t stop an attack that results in a goal and then it’s disallowed because the whistle has gone. Before they brought this in it happened a few times where it was the wrong decision and it was too late. I’m fine with it and think it works, haven’t seen an occasion yet where someone has almost got injured never mind seriously injured, the benefits of it outweigh the possible negatives for me. I can see both sides of the argument though, there is actually no solution that 100% works so there will be complaining either way, this was guarantees play continues and the decision is correct though which is all for.

5.) 16 Jun 2021
16 Jun 2021 06:40:31
I understand why they delay but the Mbappe one was ridiculous. It has become silly now.

6.) 16 Jun 2021
16 Jun 2021 07:42:09
That’s my point, the delay seems to be getting longer and longer. Hopefully this body positioning tech that’s being trialled is a success as it should help speed the game up but still enable the correct decisions to be made.

7.) 16 Jun 2021
16 Jun 2021 10:29:12
I’ve also seen refs trying to play an advantage and then bringing it back. It used to be immediate but some of them are waiting longer now before realising that no advantage was there.

8.) 16 Jun 2021
16 Jun 2021 12:25:00
The delay is simply dependent on how long the phase of play continues for. If the offence is on the half way line then you'll likely have a longer delay as it will take longer for the phase of play to end compared to an offside offence in the box.

9.) 16 Jun 2021
16 Jun 2021 17:55:34
Spot on Kurtis, if the flag went up the defence could see the flag and stop but the game continues and the goal is scored, that was the way it was for a while but there were a few times where this happened and it was deemed unfair, the only way to fix it is to do exactly what they do now, allow the play to continue then flag once the move is over.

If the linesman doesn’t believe a dangerous attack is happening he is meant to flag immediately, ie a player coming back into an onside position just over the half way line.