One of the biggest problems in how we talk about challenges is we end up judging them backwards. The ball goes in, a lad stays down, the replays run on loop, and suddenly the outcome becomes the argument. But it shouldn’t. You judge the tackle on what it is, not what it leads to.

That’s why the Pickford on Van Dijk one still gets brought up. It wasn’t the injury that made it outrageous, it was the recklessness of it. Flying in, out of control, endangering an opponent. If Van Dijk somehow walked away untouched, it would still be a penalty and a red in any game that wants to protect players properly.

A defender has to go and block it

Now compare that to situations where a defender is genuinely trying to win the ball or block the shot. You can see it a mile off when someone commits to getting something on it, because if they don’t, we’re all shouting at the telly asking why they’ve backed off.

That’s the reality of defending in the box. The margins are tiny. A split-second late and it’s a tap-in. Hesitate and you’re giving a Premier League forward a free hit. So when a defender throws himself across a shot, there’s a football logic to it that doesn’t exist in the reckless, “I’m nowhere near in control” type of lunge.

When the attacker gets there first

There’s still a grey area, of course. If the attacker gets there first and the defender clatters him, it looks horrible. Sometimes it is horrible. But it can also be one of those unfortunate crashes where both are doing what the game demands: attacker stretching to finish, defender stretching to stop.

In the Isak-type example, he gets there first and the contact comes after. It’s tough, nobody enjoys seeing a player take a whack, but that doesn’t automatically make it a sending off. It might just be the game moving at full speed and bodies arriving at the same moment.

The ‘if he doesn’t score’ factor

Truth is, we all know the debate changes if the ball doesn’t end up in the net. If Isak doesn’t score, you’d hear a lot more about “late contact” and “endangering”, because officials do sometimes get swayed by the damage or the drama rather than the action itself.

We’ve seen it with crosses and shots too: ball gone, defender follows through, and depending on how it looks the penalty can come. Konate on Gnonto is one that people still point to for that exact reason. The point isn’t that one has to match the other, it’s that consistency matters. Decide what reckless is, decide what accidental is, and stick to it.

Written by OliRed: 25 December 2025

Tags: injury