FOOTBALL ACCORDING THE NEW RULES
— Jimmy Hogan | 26/02/1927 —

Opinions appear to be very divided on the new offside rule. Is it beneficial to the game or not? There are those who claim that the new rule has pushed the actual scientific side of football, the art of the game, into the background in favor of the kick-and-rush system. Others claim that the game has become faster and significantly better under the new rule. Well, I personally agree with this latter view: the new offside rule has been extremely beneficial to the game and its introduction was almost inevitable. Today the only disadvantage it has is that the players haven't yet become very familiar with it, that they don't use it properly, and that they don't use their minds enough to have a word.

Under the old rules, especially in England, the defenders had developed roping into a veritable art, and they knew their craft so well that the game was often completely ruined by thirty or forty interruptions. A game that only lasted 90 minutes became a complete farce. Sometimes the defenders' tactics were extremely simple: it was just a matter of playing as far forward as possible in a staggered formation, and in this way the opposing forward all too often found himself in the offside trap. Especially in order to circumvent the tactical finesse of the opposing defense, the forwards often refrained from using finer combination moves and relied on individual actions. Occasionally these impressive breakthroughs were successful. Still, the breakthroughs were few and far between; All too often the bravura piece failed, then the forward became selfish, and the effort to thwart the defenders' off-side tactics led to the neglect of the combination style. The old offside rule only benefited the fullbacks; But in the long run it became a nuisance for the rest of the team and for the spectators.

It is not true to say that the new rule has stripped the game of its finer nuances; quite the opposite: under the new rules, football can be played as finely and as well as before, if the player wants to use his wits. The forwards now have a brilliant opportunity not only to attempt beautiful combination moves, but also to score goals and practice breaking through; in short, the game has become more varied. It's just that it's out of the defenders' control. Unfortunately, many forwards are not even aware of this fact! Since the introduction of the new rules, I have been fed enough Austrian and Hungarian gaming fare to be able to judge with complete conviction that many of our modern players have forgotten how to think. It seems to me that the forwards still hesitate too much when they come close to the defenders; they then pass back and forth for a long time, and no one takes responsibility for a juicy shot or a powerful breakthrough. Actually, there should be a lot more goals scored under the new rule and the game should be a lot faster! Shouldn't one be astonished if one overruns this or that forward, half-back or defender and then, when the obstacles seem to have been cleared out of the way, instead of moving away or handing the ball over to a free-standing comrade as quickly as possible, one goes back and faces the same opponents again see playing around? In this way, the opposing defence can always gather itself, take up its defensive position, and of course the possibility of self-possession is over. This is pure gallery play, which unfortunately can be seen all too often, especially with wingers. A few weeks ago I saw an inside forward standing in the area, who had carefully positioned the ball and was not seriously hindered by any defender, playing the ball to the right winger. What a grotesque idea!

In football, scoring goals is the top priority, and every assist and every movement must be controlled with this idea in mind.

I only wish some of our younger players could have seen how György Orth (M. T. K.) adapted to the new rule before his unfortunate and regrettable accident; he was a living demonstration of the way the game must be played under the new offside rule. Half-backs and defenders really had nothing to laugh about when Orth was up against them. After pulling the centre-half towards him, he passed the ball to the right or left, and before the half-back had even turned, he was already metres behind him in position and awaiting the steep pass. If the ball arrived as quickly as he had anticipated, the defenders rarely had time to get to it and the breakthrough was complete. In this way, Orth often scored two or three goals in one game. On other occasions, if Orth received a pass from the right, he would head left with the ball and immediately take the centre half-back with him, then he would not pass to the left, as his opponents would expect, but would pass the ball into the centre of the field, accurately into the gap created between the centre half-back and the right half-back, where the half-right who had shot in on the movement would have already taken position. This is exactly how he would orchestrate the shift in power if he had received the ball from the left; only the process would take place on the right wing. Of course, the football world doesn't have all Orths; but in the end Orth did no more than learn the old, simple English rule as a boy and never forget it since: draw your opponent towards you by running to the right or left and then play the leather to the opposite side.

Under the new rule, the two inside forwards must consider themselves as half-backs and forwards at the same time.

You have to do double the workload. You must never forget to go back occasionally and help out the wing half-backs; But they also have to try to take the ball with them when they move back into attacking position. The support provided by the half-back line not only allows the half-backs to do their work better, but it also serves to relieve the full-backs who are overwhelmed with work and in this way supports the position of the defence. The defenders themselves, who generally save a large part of their energy by keeping their opponents offside, now have a huge amount of work to do. They now have to be trained as much for speed as for technical ability and, above all, they are now required to work flawlessly with the half-backs, mainly the wing half-backs. The English system still seemed to me to be the best in terms of the new working rule, and under the current new rule the system is applied according to the following aspects: the wing-halves attacks the inside forward; If the ball goes to the winger on this occasion, the defender must anticipate the pass and attack the winger, while the wing half-back goes back and covers the inside. You are dealing with an extraordinarily safe, automatic substitution system, and you always have to keep in mind that a breakthrough on the wing is not as dangerous as a penetration in the middle — the winger is a nimble dribbler, like the defender must also advance, but not attempt to tackle with a rush; rather, he must wait for the right moment to intervene. At the given moment, the ball and the man are passed through a strong, fair shoulder charge, and in this way the defender will have success in nine out of ten cases.

Above all, however, the new rule is characterised by the commandment: Mark your player as emphatically as possible! And you have to shout to the forward: "Wake up! The new offside rule is made for you: keep your advantage! Don't hesitate so long, be quicker on the ball, look in front of you and not behind you! Don't flare so long in front of goal and shoot, shoot, shoot! Breakthroughs now promise more success than before, so try it when the opportunity is favourable! A forward who doesn't know how to play football under the new rule will never master the art in his life."