The most annoying foul in football

It takes a lot to make Bukayo Saka angry, but a sense of injustice tipped the England international over the edge during Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain.

The PSG left-back Nuno Mendes was in possession, facing his goal, deep inside his half and up against the touchline, when he fell to the ground in stages as Saka closed him down from behind.

Saka emerged with the ball — a ball that he kicked away in fury at the sound of referee Slavko Vincic’s whistle after he was penalised for a foul. Cue a yellow card for Saka and the sight of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta doing his latest Basil Fawlty impression on the touchline.

To be clear, this isn’t an Arsenal or a Mendes story. Instead, it is a story about one of the most frustrating fouls in football.

At this point in proceedings, it would be nice to welcome Luke Ayling to the stage to ask him to break down the art of how to buy a free kick with an opponent behind you, taking in everything from deliberately applying the brakes late, like a car driver trying to engineer a collision and a compensation claim, right through to the theatrical tumble over the ball at the end of it all, complete with raised arms and a look of dismay.

Ayling was so good at winning free kicks in that way that the Leeds supporters gave his go-to move a name: ‘The Ayling Flop’.

The images below show that moment against Southampton in all its glory.

Essentially, we are talking about an act of relatively low-grade s***housery. In Ayling’s case, it was remarkably successful, too. After making his debut for Leeds in 2016, Ayling won more fouls than any other defender who played in the top two tiers of English football during that period of time (thanks to Opta’s Jonny Cooper for that stat).

Playing to the gallery, Ayling even posted a clip on social media of his young daughter performing the move in his back garden, accompanied by the words, “I think she’s mastered it.”

Others have, too. A quick straw poll among my colleagues at The Athletic reveals that Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa, Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Joel Veltman, Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes, and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella all deserve an honorary mention for being clever at winning fouls in a similar fashion.

Konsa, in the eyes of many, was fortunate on Saturday when referee Anthony Taylor awarded a free kick in his favour following a duel with Jean-Philippe Mateta during Villa’s FA Cup semi-final defeat against Crystal Palace. Mateta ran through and scored, but the goal was disallowed.

Jason Pearce, Konsa’s captain at Charlton Athletic, quickly picked up on just how streetwise his young defensive partner was when he first broke through. “He was composed in possession and used his body well for his age,” Pearce told The Athletic last year. “He was very clever, buying a lot of free kicks.”

You can probably think of a player at your club who fits that description, too, judging by the fact that the names keep coming in: Grant Hanley, the Scotland international and former Norwich City defender, and Southampton’s Ryan Manning the latest. Speaking as a regular observer of Swansea City, I can confirm that Harry Darling is following in Ayling’s flop-steps.

There’s no suggestion that Mendes, who was outstanding on Tuesday, is a serial offender. It is more that the incident with Saka highlighted a general trend of free kicks almost routinely being given in that scenario. It’s a get out of jail free card for a defender who is in possession and feeling an opponent breathing down their neck. Concede a throw-in? Try to turn away from trouble? Go back to the goalkeeper? Or take a tumble?

“You can understand the frustration from the Arsenal fans because Mendes is just trying to protect the ball and Saka has got every right to try and get to it, which he did, and I didn’t think it was a foul,” said the former England international Alan Shearer in his role as co-commentator for the broadcaster Amazon Prime. “Mendes doesn’t know he’s that side and then he (Saka) has this little touch of him, and that is not enough for him to go down.”

“That’s a great tackle,” chipped in Mark Clattenburg, the former FIFA referee.

So why does the foul get given so often? Quite simply, it’s much easier for a referee and/or an assistant referee (as was the case with the Mendes-Saka incident) to award, or signal for, a free kick and deal with the short-lived anger that follows, rather than waving play on and risk all hell breaking loose if a goal is scored. “But isn’t that what VAR is for?” I hear you say — and that is a point that Clattenburg made at the time.

Ultimately, the player in possession knows — and top officials will talk about this kind of thing privately — that it’s a low-risk foul to give in that area of the pitch. In short, if you’re not sure as a referee, err on the side of caution and award the free kick to the defensive side. That doesn’t make it right, but it gives an insight into the thought process.

Occasionally, and it is only occasionally, a referee will go rogue. That was the case in the Liverpool-Nottingham Forest game at Anfield in September, when Yates was being chased down by Luis Diaz. Interestingly, Yates had been awarded a foul little more than a minute earlier following a bizarre tangle with Alexis Mac Allister that saw him go to ground twice.

Believe it or not, the ball was still ‘in play’ in the picture below.

But a foul was given seconds later, after Yates got to his feet and tumbled again.

Perhaps all of that was in the referee’s mind when Yates appealed, in vain, for a free kick as he tried to shepherd the ball out of play during Liverpool’s next attack. Diaz broke clear and ended up hitting the post.

Unfortunately for Arsenal and Saka, the outcome in the PSG game was much more predictable.

(Top photo: The foul Saka made on Mendes; Aurelien Meunier/PSG via Getty Images)

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