The Premier League has undergone significant changes in an effort to improve discipline and fair play this season.
The new changes aim to address issues such as time-wasting, ball-in-play time and the ill-treatment of match officials. As a result, Liverpool and other teams could be facing increased numbers of suspensions during the season.
One of the major focuses of these rule changes is to tackle verbal abuse directed at referees and other officials. In the past, fines totaling over $1.2m (£1m) were handed out to Premier League clubs for surrounding officials and mass confrontations.
To further combat this behavior, players can now be booked for unsatisfactory conduct such as gesturing for a yellow card or sprinting towards and surrounding the referee. While in an attempt to eliminate time-wasting, stricter measures have been put in place, reports the Liverpool ECHO.
Goalkeepers or any outfield player seen deploying time-wasting tactics will now immediately receive a booking instead of an initial warning. This change was evident during Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace when Gunners defender Takehiro Tomiyasu was booked for delaying a throw-in and later sent off for thwarting a Palace counter.
The statistics from the first two rounds of Premier League games this season indicate that there will be an increase in cards issued compared to previous seasons. Referees have already given out a staggering 99 yellow cards and six red cards — 20 more yellows and one more dismissal compared to the same stage of the previous campaign.
Discipline has never been a big problem during Jürgen Klopp’s tenure as Liverpool boss. The team finished at the top of the Premier League Fair Play table for five consecutive seasons between 2016/17 and 2020/21.
But with the new rules in place, there is a possibility that players across the Premier League could now be walking a disciplinary tightrope. Any player who accumulates five yellow cards within the first 19 league games will automatically receive a one-match ban.
This rule does not apply to other cup competitions. Additionally, players who receive ten cautions before the 32nd matchday will face a two-game ban.
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So far, four members of Liverpool’s first-team squad have been booked this season, and must therefore avoid a further four bookings within the next 17 matches or else face a suspension. Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota and Alexis Mac Allister have all been shown yellow cards in the opening two games, with three of those coming against Chelsea. Mac Allister was the first Reds player to face a potential enforced absence from the side after being sent off against Bournemouth, but his ban has since been overturned.
