Jeremie Frimpong is ready to change his game to cope with the ‘anything-goes’ approach of Scottish referees.
The defender has spent almost a month out of action since a crunching attack from Alan Power in the closing minutes of Celtic’s 3-1 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
It was the sort of challenge that put Kieran Tierney out of action for months at a time. Opponents with inferior ability knew that they could have a free hit- whatever type of challenge they put in the worst that would happen would be picking up a booking. In the very, very rare event of a red card they could ‘take one for the team’.
Power knew what he was doing when he went in on Frimpong. His team was losing 3-1, there were two minutes left to play and his pacey opponent was on his way to setting up another attack on the Kilmarnock goal.
Leading with his left foot for the ball his left leg followed through taking his opponent to the ground. No free kick, no yellow card, no red card, no attack for Celtic, no fourth goal for Killie to review afterwards.
Frimpong is now back in the Celtic squad but will now have to adapt his game to protect himself since it’s unlikely to come from the match referee or the SFA Compliance Officer.
Speaking to The Sun he said:
This is the first injury I’ve had and at first I thought it was going be bad. I’ve looked back at it and his legs were up. If my foot had been planted on the floor, it would have been a really bad injury — it could have been a break.
As he came in to challenge, my leg was lifted up a little bit — that’s why it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. It was over the top but what can you do? I don’t know why he did it. I don’t know what was going through his head.
He did win the ball but it was a hard, hard tackle. There were two minutes to go and we were winning. I thought it should have been a card at least but the referee didn’t do anything.
I wouldn’t say it was a big injury. I’ve been out for three weeks so it wasn’t a long time but I got a fright. I knew Scottish football would be tough and you’ve got to be ready for it. I just didn’t expect it to come like that.
If you’re on the pitch, you can’t be soft. You have to go in hard but in the right way. Maybe you have to change your style of play. Next time, in that situation, I’ll just dodge it. It’s all about learning and I’m doing that every day.
Frimpong was on the bench for Celtic’s win at Aberdeen on Sunday after missing out on six matches.
Players do what they get away with, if the trailing leg follow through resulted in an instant yellow card it would quickly be eliminated, if you can get away with it it is foolish not to use it to help your team-mates to a bonus.
