Kasper Schmeichel has complained about Alexandre Lacazette’s run-up for his penalty goal in Arsenal’s win over Leicester City this month to the PGMOL refereeing body.
It is a part of the rules that states that a player cannot stop or pause during his run-up to take the penalty kick, and while the referee and VAR had no issue with the taking of the penalty, the Leicester man clearly feels that the decision was wrong.
A number of players have begun to use a stunted slow down as part of their penalty run-up, with some of the most successful of those such as Bruno Fernandes and Jorginho enjoying the fruits of that, and Lacazette was deemed by the goalkeeper to have come to a stop.
The Danish shot-stopper initially complained to the referees after the full-time whistle, but moved to bring it up at a later date with the DailyMail reporting that it was then raised at a captain’s meeting call which including the PGMOL.
It sounds like sour grapes to be honest, but I have seen some suspect run-ups in recent seasons, and an argument could be made to even the playing field, although I don’t expect anything to come of it.
Patrick