This is THE subject that has caused an uproar since the start of the Premier League season. Indeed, several players, like Raphaël Varane, had railed against the new reform adopted by the FA on additional time. As a reminder, some matches across the Channel have seen the addition of up to 20 minutes of extra playing time, as was done at the World Cup in Qatar last winter. In Europe, La Liga has also taken this turn.
While Pep Guardiola had already expressed his incomprehension of this new situation, his player Rodri also admitted that he was against this change in remarks reported by the Manchester Evening News : “The game has changed. Added time is now 10 percent more of the game. I don’t like it, I don’t think it’s good for football because that’s when bodies are most tired and you’ve seen what happens with injuries at the start of the season . But it’s not in my hands to decide, and football is changing so we have to adapt. We now know that with extra time we still have 10-15 minutes left, so we had the mentality to be able to score again. You see me in the game I tried to shoot because I found space in the frontcourts. At the end, one came in so I’m very happy.»
