But you can't be "timewasting" while the ball is in play - that's just game management.To be fair, there were only 6 minutes added on at the end and there was a bad tackle/injury, VAR review and a red card after the 90mins.
The ball is in play for City games more than any team in Europe. We are the only English club to average over 60mins. The PL average last season was 54mins (lowest for 12 years) and some clubs are as low as 52mins and some individual games are as low as 43mins (Villa v Brentford; Palace v Leeds).
The worst time wasting I’ve ever seen was the City v Everton game last season. The ref added 12 minutes on, however, there were 6 substitutions, 2 goals and a 5 minute stoppage for a technical fault on the lino’s earphones… so we actually only got 3 minutes added on for the ball being out of play.
Something needed to happen. But with City having the higher BIP numbers, we’ll get less of this time added on than everyone else unless like the last two games there’s an injury or VAR incident after the 90mins. It’ll be those games like Villa v Brentford and Palace v Leeds last season where we’ll see the 15mins extra.
But time will be added on not for the ball going out of play but for not getting it back in play quickly. "Delaying the restart of play" has been a yellow card offence for a long time - and that will include players stopping a quick free kick..
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