Tarkowski, controversy and inconsistency
A long look at handball, and how life is being made impossible for defenders
Few decisions stir as much confusion and controversy in football as hand-ball. When Cristian Romero leaned into a strike from Alejandro Garnacho at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in September 2023, the Manchester United winger and his team-mates screamed for a penalty. The ball clipped Romero’s slightly outstretched arm. “It’s whether his right arm is near enough to his body to get away with it,” Gary Neville observed on Sky as VAR deliberated. VAR turned down United’s appeals for a penalty. Romero’s arm was deemed near enough to his body. Which brings us to the controversial case of James Tarkowski at Elland Road last night.
The Everton centre-back did everything right in reacting quickly to Anton Stach’s fierce strike, its movement complicated by deflection. Tarkowski tucked his left arm close to his side, and leaned into the ball, trying to block with his chest. He has to lean towards the ball, his job to defend the goal, to block the ball with his body - provided his arms are tight by his side. Was Tarkowski truly trying to game the rule, Tarka the plotter, as some suggest? No, he was doing what he’s trained and paid to do, block the ball, while keeping his arm far closer in than Romero’s.