Every generation says to future generations that football has been ruined, that the game has become boring. Every single generation. But no one bothers to check out what are the actual changes in football, when it was more offensive and when it was more defensive, from a more objective point of view. The idea that tactics have ruined football and made it too mechanic is as old as the sport. But no one researches what people actually said and thought about football in the previous decades. Any tactics' specialist says that tactics are crucial in the game sincer ever and how good tactics never stifle the players, they get the best out of them.
When Uruguay and Argentina evolved a brand of short passing football, Jorge Brown, a player from the 1910s who was argentinian, but had british origin, complained. In 1920, he said that the new short passing game was killing the soul and passion of the game. He favored kick-and-rush football from England.
The 1990 World Cup is considered the worst ever, everyone played ugly. Football in the early 90s had a strong emphasis on pragmatism, running and physicality. For example, Brazil was easily the best team in the 1994 World Cup, and yet they still seriously lacked flair and spark in midfield.
It had gotten so bad that fans got genuinely worried about the future of the game and FIFA made many big changes to encourage teams to be more offensive, such as the offside rule, end of backpass to goalkeeper and so on.
Here in Brazil, the country whose players epithomize flair and art in football, there has always been a debate in which many people say that tactics and mechanization of football stifle the freedom and flair of the brazilian player and make football worse. And this is an old argument, it was already common talk here in Brazil since the 70s! But Brazil has always failed when the coaches actually believe this. Brazil 1970, the team that personifies the myth of brazilian football to the world, was a tactically very strong, dynamic and organized team, every player was selfless to make all work. Brazil's physical preparation was also nothing less than amazing, by far the best of that WC, allowing Brazil to truly swallow the opposition in the second half of almost every game.
The greatest icon of not only brazilian football, but football as a whole, is Pelé. And he was a spectacle, but also above all an exemplar athlete and a player of absolute and ruthless efficience, a machine. He truly never ever made a single dribble for the sake of flair in his whole career. He was always 100% objectivity, always looked to do things in the most efficient and quickest way.
To be clear, I'm not saying that modern football is perfect. My big criticisms towards modern football are not about the game itself (though this season has been overall in a lower level than previous ones due to tight schedule, tiredness and injuries), but what surrounds it. For example, the Super League idea is shit. Also how unbalanced the gap between top teams and smaller ones is. To sum up, I fear the increasing elitization of the sport as a risk of eventually killing it as a mass sport. Also how politically correct the world has become to a point in which we fondly remember the strong and polemic personalities of the past, but are quick to trash any player who tries to do so in the modern era, such as Ibrahimovic. We are hypocrites.
When Uruguay and Argentina evolved a brand of short passing football, Jorge Brown, a player from the 1910s who was argentinian, but had british origin, complained. In 1920, he said that the new short passing game was killing the soul and passion of the game. He favored kick-and-rush football from England.
The 1990 World Cup is considered the worst ever, everyone played ugly. Football in the early 90s had a strong emphasis on pragmatism, running and physicality. For example, Brazil was easily the best team in the 1994 World Cup, and yet they still seriously lacked flair and spark in midfield.
It had gotten so bad that fans got genuinely worried about the future of the game and FIFA made many big changes to encourage teams to be more offensive, such as the offside rule, end of backpass to goalkeeper and so on.
Here in Brazil, the country whose players epithomize flair and art in football, there has always been a debate in which many people say that tactics and mechanization of football stifle the freedom and flair of the brazilian player and make football worse. And this is an old argument, it was already common talk here in Brazil since the 70s! But Brazil has always failed when the coaches actually believe this. Brazil 1970, the team that personifies the myth of brazilian football to the world, was a tactically very strong, dynamic and organized team, every player was selfless to make all work. Brazil's physical preparation was also nothing less than amazing, by far the best of that WC, allowing Brazil to truly swallow the opposition in the second half of almost every game.
The greatest icon of not only brazilian football, but football as a whole, is Pelé. And he was a spectacle, but also above all an exemplar athlete and a player of absolute and ruthless efficience, a machine. He truly never ever made a single dribble for the sake of flair in his whole career. He was always 100% objectivity, always looked to do things in the most efficient and quickest way.
To be clear, I'm not saying that modern football is perfect. My big criticisms towards modern football are not about the game itself (though this season has been overall in a lower level than previous ones due to tight schedule, tiredness and injuries), but what surrounds it. For example, the Super League idea is shit. Also how unbalanced the gap between top teams and smaller ones is. To sum up, I fear the increasing elitization of the sport as a risk of eventually killing it as a mass sport. Also how politically correct the world has become to a point in which we fondly remember the strong and polemic personalities of the past, but are quick to trash any player who tries to do so in the modern era, such as Ibrahimovic. We are hypocrites.