'Referee's a victim': Dermot Gallagher discusses 'dark arts' tactic as Newcastle United comes under scrutiny again
A couple of years ago, Newcastle United were regularly accused of employing 'dark arts' to see out games.
These 'dark arts' were purely within the rules of the game and helped Newcastle to retain points in games where the balance of play was swinging in the opposite direction.
The Magpies were derided daily by the media for these tactics, but when other teams started to copy Eddie Howe, suddenly it was never mentioned.
One thing Newcastle did regularly was to have the goalkeeper go down 'injured' to receive treatment while Howe passed on messages to the outfield players.
Newcastle resorted to their old ways against Manchester United
We'd not seen this happen for a while until Boxing Day at Old Trafford, when Eddie Howe was caught out by a surprise tactical lineup by Ruben Amorim.
In order to reorganise his team, Aaron Ramsdale went down clutching his hamstring, and while he was receiving treatment, Lewis Hall disseminated the information from Eddie Howe.
In commentary, Gary Neville clocked what was going on straight away, and as the goalkeeper couldn't go off the pitch, once Ramsdale sprang back to his feet, the game continued as normal.
Dermot Gallagher says referees are 'powerless' to stop such tactics
Now, Sky Sports Ref Watch segment has addressed the controversy and asked if it should be allowed, and how it can be stopped, with Jay Bothroyd suggesting that Newcastle should lose an outfield player for 30 seconds as the game isn't allowed to continue without a goalkeeper.
Meanwhile, Dermot Gallagher chimed in, saying that the referee is powerless to do anything to stop it.
"Referee's a victim, isn't he, because he has no power. Goalkeeper goes down, can't play without a goalkeeper, you've got to have him on. It's out of the referee's hands."
Managers have to find ways to get their messages out to their players, and if it's just a simple thing, then they can do that in normal play during a throw-in or something similar, but Eddie Howe needed to reorganise his entire lineup, and it's not as if he can call a time-out.
It's flexing the rules, absolutely, but, and this might just be the bias talking, it's clever tactics if you ask me.
