Roberto Martinez defends physical football
Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez has defended the physical football style in the Premier League.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recently called for referees to offer more protection to players. There has been a surge of bad injuries over recent weeks that has seen a number of top players left with
badly broken legs at different clubs.
However, Martinez says that aggressive football is part and parcel of the English game. He argues that making the Premier League more like La Liga with less physical contact would be counter effective
for the English game.
Aggressive and physical football does have a number of benefits and is more entertaining for the crowd. However, more players are picking up potentially career ending injuries than ever before.
The benefits
English football has always been about physically and mentally tough players that like to slide into tackles hard. This is part of the English game that has been accepted around the world. Fans thrive
on a physical context because it's entertaining.
The majority of the time the players sliding in to make tackles time challenges well. There is nothing better in the Premier League than to see a top quality defender making a superb tackle at a vital
moment during a game. More goals will be conceded if defenders are less likely to do this.
A physical approach is the only way that some teams are able to cope with the better sides in English football. Some sides simply don't have the quality to cope with the top quality passing football that
the likes of Arsenal is capable of.
"I've been here for 15 years. In League Two in 1995 there were seven challenges like that every 90 minutes. It's the nature of the game.
You get physicality and bad tackles in every league in the world. I don't think it's anything different in the Premier League. I don't think we should take it out of context," said the Wigan boss.
The negatives
The biggest negative is that players are left with badly broken legs and potential ends to careers. Bobby Zamora of Fulham and Hatem Ben Arfa of Newcastle United are two
players that have suffered bad leg breaks within a few weeks of each other. However, remember these injuries are rare.
There is an argument to suggest that sides that play good football are less likely to play well if the players feel they are going to be kicked off the ball. This reduces
the quality of a game and means that fans don't get to see the best of certain players and teams.
"If you get the ball, great, if you don't you're risking now to be sent off.
Football is a contact game and you need to be strong enough to go into challenges but you don't want to see injuries.
You see these challenges where the defender is going to get up and the striker you just hope he's going to get up but it could easily be three or four months
out," added Martinez.
Betting advice
Martinez's comments suggest that he is not going to put his Wigan team off from being quite physical in matches against better opponents. This means there is a better chance
of Wigan players being booked and picking up red cards.
This is also an approach to take with other matches across the Premier League. There seems to be a genuine pattern at the moment where more players are going for big challenges.
Bet on yellow cards, red cards and penalties in all matches where a weaker Premier League side is playing a better opponent.
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