Players are tackling dangerously because they do not trust their opponents, according to Stuart Pearce, the England Under-21 head coach. Pearce tackled fearlessly throughout his career, but he believes that players have started tackling with two feet because they are worried about being hurt by their opponents.

“When you are running at someone with pace, you have to trust they are going for the ball and, possibly, a little bit of trust has gone out of the game,” Pearce said. “That’s what may have possibly created what you are seeing at the moment. Lack of trust or cowardice? I think it is somewhere between the two.”

Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, wants to ban for life players who commit dangerous challenges, but Pearce believes that his comments should be treated with caution. Blatter’s proposal came in response to the challenge by Martin Taylor, the Birmingham City defender, that left Eduardo da Silva, the Arsenal forward, with a fractured left fibula and dislocated ankle. Taylor has been suspended for three matches, but Fifa wants the FA to pass on the disciplinary file on the incident. Blatter said that his organisation has the right to make such a request to ensure that appropriate sanctions have been issued.

“Although I think outlawing dangerous tackles is a good thing, we’ve got to leave it to referees to decide what is a bad tackle and what is mistimed,” Pearce said. “We’ve got to be careful we don’t outlaw tackles altogether.

“People don’t want dangerous tackles and they don’t want injuries. But I’ve probably seen a good few worse than the one by Taylor, if not so many that have done so much damage. Such is the pace of the game these days that if you mistime one, it can look horrendously poor.”