I admire your commitment to effort but the French put loads of effort and resources into building the Maginot Line before WW2 so that any invading German troops would be stopped from directly invading France in the event of a war. The trouble was, that Hitler’s army, acting suspiciously like Hocking’s man in possession, simply navigated their way safely around the wall with almost no resistance, because the series of heavy fortifications that was the Maginot Line could not be moved laterally to cover an alternative line of invasion. And according to the wikipedia page I have pasted below, the Maginot Line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts offering a false sense of security.
Maginot Line - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
It is arguable a a stretch that the most constructive thing the man on the mark can do is display frustrated body lanuage to protest the stupidity of the rule.
You can no longer consistently get frontal pressure upon a player with a free kick or mark because he can simply safely navigate around it. This being the case, is it not better to focus effort on alternative fortifications, and escape plans in the event of a turnover….you know, sort of like Dunkirk?
Time spent fortifying the mind is seldom wasted.
We agree that protesting the stupidity of the rule through frustrated body language isn't constructive.
Here you're suggesting there's more efficient ways to invest our limited energy.
Are these alternative fortifications when on the mark, or do you mean from a general POV that we should conserve energy for more important moments in the match?
As for your claim that we can no longer consistently apply frontal pressure in this situation, well that is correct in that we can't consistently apply it - but that doesn't mean we can't sometimes apply frontal pressure, nor reap the benefits of the lingering psychology associated with pouncing aggressively vs slouching passively.
We do sometimes give the kicker a couple of extra seconds to make a decision due to lack of urgency on the mark after the whistle. That's a choice we've made, consciously or not.
Of course, mindfully intelligent players like Grimes will always have eyes on the kicker and ears on the whistle. He's the best one at being ready to pounce when manning the mark. What are the energy cost reasons for his teammates to consciously decide not to be as urgent when standing on the mark?
