No it's not. The ball is still in play and the opposing team have the opportunity to come and get it. When other teams utilise the tactical injury play is stopped and all momentum is taken out of our play.
Quite.. especially goalkicks, as with Palace last night.
Posted on this a couple of times in recent years, with reference to the lack of action taken by referees and the powers-that-be to sort it out once and for all.. oh, and when I say 'lack of action' that does take into account how, curiously, having done Sweet Fanny Adams about it most games, they do race into action if ever Ederson should dally over a goalkick towards the end of a match we've been chasing and finally managed to get ahead of the opposition..
Not getting at Palace specifically (as most teams do this against us, notably Everton, Saints and Palace in recent years) but when we played them at our gaff just before lockdown (which ended 2-2 with Fernandinho's own-goal at the death) I did a back-of-the-fag packet calculation (nerd that I am) on the time wasted by Palace's keeper over goalkicks during the game.
Using the stadium clock I counted more than a dozen goalkicks that took anything between 38-65 seconds between the ball going out of play to being returned into play. I reckoned that day that approximately more than 15% of the 90 minutes was lost to this tactic, which is ripping off the paying customers big style. And not just us at City but at every professional match, whichever teams are involved.
As I say, not that the powers-that-be ever seem interested in sorting this kind of stuff out. Nor do the media, bothered as they are with 'false equivalence', sucking up to their paymaster favoured clubs and telling lies about City. F**k 'em..
