This is what good competition does, forces everyone to move towards the best ways of playing or be left behind.
Has (international) football become too generic?
- Thread starter Pexbo
- Start date
Kids are over coached from when they start playing for clubs at 5 or 6 in almost every club right down to your basic Sunday league team. It's a formulaic approach that includes everything from the way they kick the ball to how they play and where to run and what positions to pick up. It's too structured and leaves little room for kids to develop their own style or understanding of the game.
There is no flair left in football, barely any excitement. Football is played on spreadsheets now.
Serbia, technical with zero running.
as everything in football it goes in cycles.
spain and barca were succesful with tikki takka, followed by other teams notably bayern and city
because it was successful, it was copied
Liverpool showed how the approach could be overcome, however it failed to gain traction because it petered out after a couple of seasons whereas the tikka takka way carried on producing the titles. City have 8 major trohies in 4 years compared to Liverpools 2 (arguably 3 depending on how you rate the world club). If Liverpools approach (or another approach) comes back and crushes city and other teams tikka takka style then there will be another shift.
Our perspective might also be skewed by the fact that we havent won a trophy in 4 years and havent won the league in almost a decade. It might be that for us Football seems less exciting not because it is less exciting but because we arent winning.
It's the euros, so I think styles were always likely to be more homogeneous. Most of the players would be concentrated in just a few countries' leagues playing the same way.
Probably see more variation at the world cup, but also many players would be Europe based. And the world is so connected now, so you don't really see football stars or teams emerge out of the blue to surprise anyone.
Probably see more variation at the world cup, but also many players would be Europe based. And the world is so connected now, so you don't really see football stars or teams emerge out of the blue to surprise anyone.
It's not just about the style or winning. For me it's about the players that are out there and the overall entertainment levels of the sport.
Was thinking watching Holland-Ukraine the other day how technical and cat and mouse matches at the top level have really become as that certainly wasn't!
Both teams basically playing without a central midfield for the first half of that given both were running through up to edge of the box on numerous occasions and Holland didn't have anyone in left back spot for most of it either.
The coaches watching might hate that type of carefree match but I loved it and it didn't do any harm most of football being like that in 90s and early 2000s before rise of pragmatist coaches like Mourinho and Benitez who suddenly made business end of CL seasons as chess matches and that translated eventually to international football and then league seasons.
Both teams basically playing without a central midfield for the first half of that given both were running through up to edge of the box on numerous occasions and Holland didn't have anyone in left back spot for most of it either.
The coaches watching might hate that type of carefree match but I loved it and it didn't do any harm most of football being like that in 90s and early 2000s before rise of pragmatist coaches like Mourinho and Benitez who suddenly made business end of CL seasons as chess matches and that translated eventually to international football and then league seasons.
Yeah whatever for Guardiola influenced possession football, Mourinho glamourised 'the ball is your enemy' tactics that mean that you get more games of 80-20% possession when it rarely went past 60-40 in the 90s and 00s. It has led to a lot of attack vs defence matches that are often tedious to watch. Spain vs Sweden last night was a typical example. Spain liked to keep the ball and had 86% possession in the game. But there's no way Sweden only have 14% unless they are actively trying to hoof it and put everyone in their own half. It takes two to tango and Sweden had no intention of keeping the ball.
Wales five at the back with one in attack
Obvious euphemism
Im not sure i agree though get the point.
Spain passed to death with 85% possession, Italy had immobile at centre forward and had a rock solid defence celebrating tackles, was struck by how confident on the ball so many Dutch were. I think there's still very much a national identity to styles
Spain passed to death with 85% possession, Italy had immobile at centre forward and had a rock solid defence celebrating tackles, was struck by how confident on the ball so many Dutch were. I think there's still very much a national identity to styles
i am as entertained as i have ever been
I think the subtleties are still there, it's just sometimes countries have a plethora of certain players breakthrough and lack others that they were previously great in. Another big one IMO is how international football management has definitely become secondary to club football (that whole drama with Spain last world cup and Lopetegui, Koeman leaving Netherlands despite doing very well for them before taking on the Euros). The majority of the time you get failed club managers take over their countries (look at England's record of managers and how they did before they took the job...). There's almost never a proven or even decent club football manager in charge of a country. Flick taking over from Low after this Euro will make Germany favourites alone for the next World Cup IMO.
Look at Mancini's impact since he took over Italy. Undefeated and hasn't conceded a goal in ages, and Italy are looking better than at any point since 2006. Spain will be decent with Enrique too IMO, but at the end of the day you need the players and they have no goalscorers to make the difference. The rare times these days that a genuinely good club manager takes over a country (even Van Gaal in 2014), they have a huge impact. Mourinho for me should go to international management. Rodgers should look at England once they move on from Southgate. It's almost like a waste of a good generation of players if the FA don't push hard for a top manager.
Look at Mancini's impact since he took over Italy. Undefeated and hasn't conceded a goal in ages, and Italy are looking better than at any point since 2006. Spain will be decent with Enrique too IMO, but at the end of the day you need the players and they have no goalscorers to make the difference. The rare times these days that a genuinely good club manager takes over a country (even Van Gaal in 2014), they have a huge impact. Mourinho for me should go to international management. Rodgers should look at England once they move on from Southgate. It's almost like a waste of a good generation of players if the FA don't push hard for a top manager.
Hxkkkk, hex on you!
Traitorous Dake futchie!
Such blasphemy has seen you exiled, hasn't it?
I think this is a call for latter point in the competition when we see what teams look like once they're settled and have gotten group stage nerves out of their collective systems, so worth revisiting this thread in a week or two.