Premier League football is currently experiencing a love-in with set pieces and set-piece coaches, with their goalscoring and clean-sheet-protecting routines earning plaudits far and wide.
There is indisputable skill involved in co-ordinating dead-ball moves for a team to exploit, and having the talent to deliver the pinpoint crosses and make gains from corners and free kicks is important, but there’s a bedrock to set-piece success that only gets remarked upon if done poorly: holding.
It’s the unglamorous side to being effective in both boxes. Teams who do it well invariably score goals from set pieces and also concede very few. Those who are less subtle or lack the cohesion to stay just on the right side of the line in terms of the game’s laws are prone to giving away penalties.
Here, The Athletic looks at what you can get away with to reap the benefits.
What are the rules?
A holding offence occurs when a player grasps an opponent’s body or shirt for a period of time, impeding their movement.
The threshold for a holding offence is sustained and impactful holding, with a clear impact on the opponent’s opportunity to play or challenge for the ball and/or a non-footballing action that impacts the opposing player’s movement.
This season, the Premier League and the PGMOL, the match officials’ body, have implemented special considerations in a guidance document for players and officials to follow:
- Players who only focus on an opponent and pay no attention to challenging for the ball, and have a material impact, should be penalised.
- Where both players are involved in simultaneous and similar actions (mutual holding), play should be allowed to continue.
- Where one player clearly holds an opponent and this action clearly impacts the opponent’s movement and/or the ability to play or challenge for the ball (material impact), this action should be penalised.
- Where one player solely focuses on an opponent and makes a clear non-footballing action that clearly impacts the progress of the opponent, this action should be penalised.
The Premier League also communicated the following:
- Holding while focusing solely on the opponent and paying no attention to challenging for the ball is usually an offence.
- (Holding) Both arms is usually an offence if sustained and/or there is clear impact.
- Shirt holding is usually an offence, unless it is slight, short, or has no clear impact.
- (Holding) One arm is usually an offence if there is clear impact. However, mutual holding play is usually no offence.
How have the rules been applied?
Everton 0-0 Newcastle
There were several examples of referee interference due to holding inside the box this past weekend — but this was arguably the most blatant.
With Newcastle set to take a corner in the first half, Everton defender James Tarkowski and Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali were engaged in what seemed to be a back-and-forth tussle in the penalty area without much regard for the impending delivery from wide.
While Kieran Trippier and Jacob Murphy played out a short-corner routine which came to nothing, Tarkowski and Tonali continued their tussle, with the Everton centre-half eventually dragging the Italian to the floor. Referee Craig Pawson, who did not see the offence occur, let play carry on but it was checked for a penalty by video assistant referee (VAR) Chris Kavanagh.
Tarkowski’s foul on Tonali violates at least three of the considerations laid out before the season.
First, it’s apparent that Tarkowski has no regard for the corner-kick delivery and appears entirely focused on preventing Tonali’s movements instead of the ball. Then, by hauling his man to the ground, he violates the third consideration, preventing the Newcastle player from challenging for the ball — though Murphy’s eventual shot went high and wide anyway. And while he and Tonali did appear to engage in mutual holding at the beginning of the move, Tarkowski flinging his opponent to the turf is undoubtedly a “non-footballing action”.
Pawson was duly advised to award a penalty.
Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool
If the above incident was appropriately handled according to the Premier League’s guidelines, this one, from Liverpool’s 1-0 win against Crystal Palace earlier on Saturday, is slightly more dubious.
Like the penalty given to Newcastle, this holding incident occurred during a corner-kick routine.
With Liverpool ahead in south London, Palace worked the ball into Eberechi Eze’s path, who crossed it towards Trevoh Chalobah at the far post. While goalkeeper Alisson palmed Chalobah’s volleyed effort away, Virgil van Dijk appeared to pull Marc Guehi’s arm in an off-the-ball challenge, dragging the England centre-back to the ground.
Guehi appealed to Simon Hooper for a penalty but the referee waved his claims away. VAR David Coote checked the situation and recommended a no-penalty decision.
Shortly after, the Premier League Match Centre account on X, new for this season on the social media platform as a way of providing information to followers directly from the system’s Stockley Park base to the west of London, said VAR deemed “the challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play”.
When cross-referenced with the incident in the Everton match later in the day, VAR’s explanation for the no-penalty decision at Selhurst Park is curious.
Given Murphy was in the process of firing high and wide over the bar from the edge of the box, the “impact” of Tarkowski’s challenge on Tonali turned out to be negligible. However, in the Palace case, it’s the lack of sustained contact made by Van Dijk on Guehi which saved the Liverpool defender from giving away a penalty.
While Tarkowski’s foul is a “non-football action”, Van Dijk’s tug on Guehi’s hand is deemed to have happened for a short enough time that he hasn’t impacted his opponent’s ability to challenge for the ball. In VAR Coote’s opinion, Guehi would not have won the ball had Van Dijk not held him back, and the foul also wasn’t excessive enough to have warranted a penalty despite that.
On September 21, a similar incident in the box involving West Ham United forward Crysencio Summerville was also not punished, despite replays suggesting he had been held back from playing the ball by Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana. On that occasion, UK broadcaster TNT Sports’ commentary team communicated to viewers that the VAR decided Fofana’s contact was only “fleeting” and therefore did not warrant a penalty.
Brentford 5-3 Wolves
If Arsenal are masters of the ‘dark arts’, Wolves are a team who could learn a thing or two: they have given away penalties in successive weeks for similar incidents.
On September 28, their right-back Nelson Semedo was penalised for holding Liverpool forward Diogo Jota in the box. Mohamed Salah dutifully scored the league leaders’ match-winning penalty. Then on Saturday, midfielder Mario Lemina repeated the act, putting his hand around Nathan Collins’ neck at a defensive corner and dragging the Brentford centre-half to the floor.
Referee Andy Madley initially missed the incident but VAR Michael Oliver checked it and recommended that he visit the monitor.
With Lemina’s left hand around Collins’ neck and therefore impacting “the opponent’s movement and/or the ability to play or challenge for the ball”, Madley gave a penalty, which Bryan Mbeumo scored.
How to take advantage of the rules
Last season, Arsenal had the Premier League’s most non-penalty set-piece goals (22) and the most goals via corners (16), and conceded the second-fewest set-piece goals excluding penalties (seven) — and co-ordinating holding in the box was an important reason why.
Ben White developed a reputation for holding last season. It’s a prevalent part of the set-piece tactics — Arsenal’s are headed by specialist coach Nicolas Jover — which have accelerated Mikel Arteta’s team towards the top of the table, drawing plaudits from some and criticism from others.
“We are witnessing a stealthy, very deliberate, strategy from Arsenal — and Ben White in particular — to obstruct goalkeepers in a way which will avoid detection by the referees,” pundit and former top-flight player and manager Graeme Souness wrote for the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper in May. “Call me old-fashioned, but what we’re seeing here is cheating.”
While holding and blocking in the box rubs some up the wrong way, its effectiveness is hard to deny. Last season, Arsenal matched the 16 goals from corners scored by West Bromwich Albion in 2016-17, the Premier League record, and they show no signs of slowing down when it comes to their effectiveness from set pieces.
Gabriel is viewed as their most dangerous weapon from dead-ball situations, but Arsenal’s deliveries are not all directed towards the Brazilian centre-back.
Here’s an example of Arsenal’s effectiveness in using holding as part of their set-piece tactic, from which Leandro Trossard profits, taken from their 4-2 win against Leicester City last month.
The goal comes as Arsenal are searching for a late winner after Leicester have rallied from two goals down to make it 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium. Bukayo Saka sends in a deep cross from the corner, with Trossard positioned past the far post and Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori occupying two of Leicester’s taller defenders with mutual holding.
Despite the incoming ball passing Havertz and Calafiori, they continue holding their opponents, with Gabriel now engaged in the six-person holding match in line with the far post.
Saka’s delivery sails over all of their heads and Trossard, who is not being marked, directs an effort back across the box on the volley into the assembled crowd. The ball hits Leicester midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and passes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen on its way into the net.
With holding opposing players being such an established part of defending, particularly from set plays, clubs now take advantage of it as a tactic both in those situations and in attack — as long as it is executed subtly and does not “clearly” violate the Premier League’s guidance.
(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)