Premier League games would end in spectacular fashion if Gary Neville had his way.
The Manchester United legend never shies away from giving his opinion, and he wasn’t short of suggestions when suggesting how football could be made better for supporters.
Credit: YouTube: @TheOverlapNeville believes fans would be kept entertained if certain rules were changed in the Premier League[/caption]
Appearing on The Overlap alongside Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher, Neville and his co-hosts put forward the potential changes to the sport they felt would ‘make it 100 per cent better forever’.
And the 49-year-old had a radical idea which would have a huge impact on league tables should it be introduced.
After Carragher began with: “Get of extra time,” Neville then had an equally revolutionary proposal.
The former full-back followed up: “I’ll go that radical.
“I’ve got the end of [drawn] league games, penalties for an extra point, so you get two points [if you win the shoot-out].”
The eight-time Premier League champion then explained his suggestion was motivated by entertainment value for fans.
He continued: “Make it exciting, every game, for a fan that comes.
“A kid goes to a game for the first time, it might be their only game of the season, sees a nil-nil draw or a 1-1. [If it goes to penalties] there’s a winner. At least there’s penalties.
“Kids love penalties. My girls love penalties at the end.”
Despite his enthusiasm for the idea, Neville admitted the potential rule change could prove tricky to introduce, adding: “I’m not sure it works, actually, to be fair.”
GettyDrawn matches go straight to penalties in the Carabao Cup, and Neville called for this to be introduced to the Premier League[/caption]
Credit: YouTube: @TheOverlapIan Wright called for a major change to the use of VAR[/caption]
Despite his reservations however, the Carabao Cup has already given fans a glimpse into how this idea would work.
Since the 2018/19 season, all games before the semi-final stage that are drawn after 90 minutes go directly to penalties, with extra-time scrapped.
And Neville wasn’t the only pundit who felt the rule book could be rewritten in order to improve the game.
Ian Wright suggested that football should take a similar approach to other sports with regards to VAR decisions.
The Arsenal legend called for teams to be given a limited number of attempts to challenge refereeing decisions through VAR, using a similar system to tennis and cricket.
He said: “Why don’t they do it where, like in tennis, only the manager can say, call a VAR? Like how they do in tennis, and you get three goes at it.
“You get three goes at saying: ‘Have a look at the line judge’.”
Wright then continued: “And instead of us going to VAR, you might be able to do it three times instead of worrying [about each decision].”
VAR decisions would be much less frequent if Wright had his wayGetty
Neville then suggested that teams be limited to one challenge per half, to which Wright agreed, and suggested that this may cut out the amount of close-call offside decisions made in games.
He replied: “Yeah. So then what happens is that then we go back to, if a goal is scored, well, he’s already had his challenge. It’s done.
“And we’re not talking about blatantly offside, we’re talking about the silly ones, really tight, where people say things like: ‘Well, it’s offside, so it doesn’t make any difference’.
“You can only challenge that once. Then everything else is the referee’s decision.”
With the pundits also discussing changing other pressing matters in the game, including the financial disparity between the Premier League and the EFL, they also found time to air their personal pet peeves.
Carragher was passionate in arguing what he would change in the game, ranting: “Players to stop kicking the ball out when somebody goes down. It f***ing pisses me off.
“Games stopping all the time. People bluffing injuries, it stops the game. Just get on with the f***ing game.”