We've had "how would you change the rules" discussions around here, but on the subject of the offside rule, one change I'd like to see is eliminating the possibility of an offside violation within the 6-yard box. Basically, if the penultimate defender is closer to his goal line than the 6-yard line is (or the ball likewise), then any attacking player who's in that 0-6 space is deemed onside and eligible to receive the ball.
Motivation:
- The whole spirit of the offside rule is to prevent people from camping out by the goal when the play is way ahead of them, waiting to just get a long lob and put it on net.
- By the time the defenders are all the way back to the 6, there's no real "Camping out" possible, you're within a step or two of either the goalie or the last defender anyway, and if you're wider outside than the goal is, playing the ball to you there is probably a -xG play anyway.
- But we have exciting plays nullified all the time by like a redirected ball off a corner, or some mayhem play in front of the net when someone was off by a few inches. And in my view, those aren't against the spirit of the rule, or making the game ugly or anything. They're good plays that were taken away by overzealous adherence to a rule that should be more fine-grained.
- Moreover, you can't really plan an attack that would take advantage of this change. You wouldn't be able to have someone run in front of the defense on a breakaway, for example, and then only get the ball played to them when a defender reaches the 6 - at that point there isn't enough time to receive a ball usefully. So the only thing it would do is prevent good goals getting taken off the board.
Even just thinking of situations like a rebound off of a set piece, it's pretty rare that defenders will set up inside the 6 except on a corner. So they could still trigger an offsides call, just as long as they stay outside the 6.
Better yet: one common attacking pattern is to have someone go to the goal line with the ball, which is done to remove possibility of offsides, and then pull it back to someone in the box who can strike it home. Eliminating the need to do so past the 6-yard box will mean that penetrating dribbles can get into a position to make a dangerous final pass more easily, and have a wider angle of passes to work from, without having to go all the way to the end-line.
Basically, it would give a big boost to attacking players and team styles, while not allowing the kind of behavior that the offside rule was invented to prevent. Anyway, I think about that every time there's an offside call within, like, a foot or two of the goal - I'm screaming "that's the defender's mistake, or lucky play by the attacker, not the deployment of ugly-but-effective tactics!"