Apart from Simeone, it seems as though defensive managers get an awful lot of stick these days, far more than at any other time I can remember.
It doesn't seem like the art of defending or masterfully shutting up shop has any place in the modern-day footballing mindset. Is this true?
I'll say for my own club and its history of attacking that it's been easy throughout the years to appreciate that kind of football from a distance and a certain level of detachment beings as it had very little to do with us. I'll always enjoy that kind of football at tournaments, too, more from the perspective of seeing which teams will be good enough to breach the seemingly unbreachable as it's a measure of both the attackers and defenders on show. I think Chelsea vs. Barcelona in both their peaks might be the pinnacle of that this century so far, actually.
Anyway, where do you stand regarding this? Would football be more of a spectacle with an improvement in attacking over defending or would it then become an undiluted mess?
It doesn't seem like the art of defending or masterfully shutting up shop has any place in the modern-day footballing mindset. Is this true?
I'll say for my own club and its history of attacking that it's been easy throughout the years to appreciate that kind of football from a distance and a certain level of detachment beings as it had very little to do with us. I'll always enjoy that kind of football at tournaments, too, more from the perspective of seeing which teams will be good enough to breach the seemingly unbreachable as it's a measure of both the attackers and defenders on show. I think Chelsea vs. Barcelona in both their peaks might be the pinnacle of that this century so far, actually.
Anyway, where do you stand regarding this? Would football be more of a spectacle with an improvement in attacking over defending or would it then become an undiluted mess?