I heard that in Geoffrey Boycott's voice.
Small hill you'll die on - football discourse
- Thread starter Brightonian
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That was indeed the theory, it turned out to be wrong. They did a study about 10ish years after it was introduced and found that teams had become less likely to score once they got in front. Because once they got in front, they now had more to lose if they conceded, but little additional benefit if they scored more. So teams started playing more defensive once they got a lead.
Footballers don’t mind being injured and don’t really have any motivation to get better quicker
Penalty run-ups should have no skips, hops, stutters, slowdowns, or any other shenanigans. Just run up normally and kick the ball. If you break that rule, the penalty is awarded to the other team instead.
Titus Bramble was a poor footballer.
That's interesting. Never heard about that. Do you have a link to that, by any chance?
There was a spate of soccer stat books in early 2000s, it was in one of those. i honestly can’t recall the name off the top of my head, since it was 20 years ago now, but I guess it’s on a shelf somewhere if you’re really bothered. I think it had a chapter about why England are crap at pens in the same one.
I can’t remember the full details of the chapter, but I remember the main thing was that while there was a slight increasing in games being settled one way or another, the number of goals didn’t change and it just made it harder for mid table teams to challenge at the top. It certainly didn’t have the dramatic effect they were hoping for. Perverse incentive.
The influence of managers can often be overestimated. If the players don't have it in them in the first place then you're not getting anywhere.
Real Madrid UCL run in the mid 2010s was mostly down to luck
Gave him plenty of time. We were only every going to be a club closer to the Championship than the Champions League.
If you don't show at least something in 14 months, then you don't deserve more time.
Football is less popular than it was 20+ years ago due to the modern day player's promotion being done almost exclusively online. Or at least it feels that way.
A good amount of people aren't even on social media, whereas you would be considered a bit of an oddball if you don't/didn't have a TV. I can't think of any modern day player with the same level of celebrity of Beckham, Ronaldinho etc.
Look at all those Joga Bonito adverts with Cantona and a bunch of active players back then. Stuff like that barely exists on TV anymore.
A good amount of people aren't even on social media, whereas you would be considered a bit of an oddball if you don't/didn't have a TV. I can't think of any modern day player with the same level of celebrity of Beckham, Ronaldinho etc.
Look at all those Joga Bonito adverts with Cantona and a bunch of active players back then. Stuff like that barely exists on TV anymore.
Lower league football is more enjoyable to watch live than PL football.
The 90s and 2000’s were the golden age. Football has become boring and far less entertaining.
Is that even a hot take? I'd also say that players have had the talent coached out of them if that makes any sense. Players are also way too overrated today as people just look at stats. A lot of players have great dribbling stats for instance, yet when you actually watch them play you see they never really seem in control of the ball, and then when they make the step up from a lesser league its a surprise when they don't do well. Renato Sanches is a perfect example, people were raving about him.
It’s probably age dependent.
That period was the perfect balance between improvements in standards across the board (pitches, training, diet, players not having a pint and a fag at half time) and the loss of personality, character and sterilisation at the altar of “marginal gains”.
It’s just a lot less fun nowadays. Does Ronaldinho get to be Ronaldinho and win a Balon d’Or doing it in 2026? Almost certainly not.
100%
There should be 5 subs named and you're allowed to make 3 of them. That's it.
I genuinely don't even know how many subs are allowed on the bench now, but it seems to be about 10. It's ridiculous.
I've never thought conceding a penalty was a harsh enough punishment for a player using his hands on the goal-line in a last gasp effort to stop an obvious goal. It just encourages the most blatant cheating being worth a risk in high stakes games.
Especially now that we have something like var, it should be just be a red card and the goal should be awarded unless the replay clearly shows it wasn't going in anyway. There isn't enough ambiguity involved in 99% of these situations for anything else worthwhile.
Especially now that we have something like var, it should be just be a red card and the goal should be awarded unless the replay clearly shows it wasn't going in anyway. There isn't enough ambiguity involved in 99% of these situations for anything else worthwhile.
Not a hill i would die on, but imo madrid from 2009 till 2012 were one of the best league teams ever, but don't get that praise because they were overshadowed by barca.
Here's a small hill I'll die on: Some people credit Jose Mourinho for RM's CL exploits, because he allegedly built the team, its tactics, and its mentality. I completely disagree with that.
The main players that won 4 in 5 CL titles were Navas, Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Varane, Carvajal, Marcelo, Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Isco, Di Maria, Alonso, Ronaldo, Benzema, and Bale.
The majority of these players were not signed during Mourinho's stint. Only Varane, Casemiro, Di Maria, and Modric were. Varane is well-known to be Zidane's signing (he was technical director at the time). Casemiro only came in the last six months of Mourinho and never was part of the first team while he was there. Di Maria left a year after Mourinho. So it's really only Modric. The rest of the squad was either signed before Mourinho, or after.
Many of the players who were already there, had won big with club or country before Mourinho's arrival (Ronaldo, Ramos, Casillas, and Alonso). You can hardly say they needed him to improve their mentality.
Tactically, the great RM team was known for playing 4-3-3 with a great combination in midfield. Mourinho's RM team did not play like this. They played more 4-2-3-1 and the midfield wasn't anything special.
He was very good at RM, but he didn't build anything that lasted. The club chose to move on to a different project when he left, and the new project was simply much better.
The main players that won 4 in 5 CL titles were Navas, Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Varane, Carvajal, Marcelo, Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Isco, Di Maria, Alonso, Ronaldo, Benzema, and Bale.
The majority of these players were not signed during Mourinho's stint. Only Varane, Casemiro, Di Maria, and Modric were. Varane is well-known to be Zidane's signing (he was technical director at the time). Casemiro only came in the last six months of Mourinho and never was part of the first team while he was there. Di Maria left a year after Mourinho. So it's really only Modric. The rest of the squad was either signed before Mourinho, or after.
Many of the players who were already there, had won big with club or country before Mourinho's arrival (Ronaldo, Ramos, Casillas, and Alonso). You can hardly say they needed him to improve their mentality.
Tactically, the great RM team was known for playing 4-3-3 with a great combination in midfield. Mourinho's RM team did not play like this. They played more 4-2-3-1 and the midfield wasn't anything special.
He was very good at RM, but he didn't build anything that lasted. The club chose to move on to a different project when he left, and the new project was simply much better.
Imo some big things mourinho brought to rm were intensity, physicality and confidence in big games. Schuster, ramos and Pellegrini struggled in those regards in key matches in cl and even la liga. His persistence with khedira hurt the team. I think ancelotti used khedira too, but when he got injured the team improved.
100% agree. Concussion subs aside, 3 should be the max no of subs. 5 subs advantages the bigger clubs and allows them to hoard players more.
Weirdly - since this law has come in - the inverse seems to be true.
Forget Van der Saar not being in the top 5. He was the best keeper I've seen. Growing up watching Schmiechel, he had a huge influence, massive presence in the side, excellent at numbers 1s. He made quite a few mistakes in his time.
Van der Saar all around I felt wasn't as flashy but was so steady, well organized, well-positioned. Made great saves also, did he have an advantage with the centre halfs? Yes I could count on one hand the errors he made. There was a West Brom him game/Champions League final could have done better. But for example I think Schemeichel was worse with the free kick goal than VDS was with Messi's but you never hear about it.
It's a close one, I'd personally choose Van der Saar and if people say Schemeichel is better, fair enough. But no way are De Gea and Alisson better than him.
Van der Saar all around I felt wasn't as flashy but was so steady, well organized, well-positioned. Made great saves also, did he have an advantage with the centre halfs? Yes I could count on one hand the errors he made. There was a West Brom him game/Champions League final could have done better. But for example I think Schemeichel was worse with the free kick goal than VDS was with Messi's but you never hear about it.
It's a close one, I'd personally choose Van der Saar and if people say Schemeichel is better, fair enough. But no way are De Gea and Alisson better than him.
I’d definitely go along with it. I think pretty much every UCL winner needs some luck along the way, but there were a few seasons where it felt like they done a deal with the devil. The draw always seemed to work out brilliantly for them, and if it wasn’t that then it was huge game changing decisions going in their favour.
Lucky things that went madrids way those years were ramos goal in 16 final being offside, atletico missing a penalty, vidal getting sent off wrongly in 17 qf, robben getting injured in 18 sf and ramos injuring salah.
Iniesta is better than Maradona.
So many people online were complaining that Yamal was in the top 3 because he 'only scored 9 league goals', even though he was the best player from general play, the best dribbler and creator and had the highest average rating. Ronaldinho in 2004/05 only scored 9 league goals too but won the Ballon d'Or and it was no issue.
Fair enough mate, I was posting at 5am and didn't read it properly. Apologies.
Football shouldn't cater to self-imposed religious restrictions.
Half the BvB first team being injured plus Mhkitaryan missing an open goal, plus Ramos scoring in injury time in '14, a penalty not given to Roma plus Dzeko and Salah combining to miss more sitters than previously thought possible, plus Pepe escaping a clear red card against City, plus Ramos offside goal in '16, '17 we just rolled over everyone even though refereeing mistakes made the Bayern tie closer than it should have been - Vidal was indeed wrongly sent off in the 85th minute, when in fact he should have been off in the 5th - and then '18 was epic. In order: Kroos offside by 2 meters, pulls a Robben- style swan dive, wins penalty, followed by Sergio "Casillas" Ramos pulling off a spectacular save from a point blank Rabiot open goal shot - ref somehow missed it. Cuadrado scythed down in the box on the last play of the first leg against Juventus, Cakir ignores it(also from that game, Dybala and Kroos committing the exact same foul in the space of 5 minutes, only Dybala getting carded for it. He then got sent off for a dive later on, good call that). Stonewall penalty for Bayern on the first play of SF, ignored. Miraculously, Bayern manage to miss even more sitters than Roma did in '16! Stonewall penalty for Bayern for Marcelo handball in the second leg, ignored. Stonewall penalty for Bayern in the second leg - Ramos flattens Lewandowski - ignored again. That's 3 stonewall penalties denied, plus there was potentially another one too
And then of course, Ramos breaks Salah, then Ramos breaks Karius in the final
I loved that run
Moyes, despite being an irritating git and playing shite football for the majority of his career, is the best mid-table manager there has ever been.
Harry redknapp was better imo. Certainly Martin O'Neil.
Edit: Also depends on your criteria, as Ranieri won the league with a midtable club.
Are you old enough to have seen either of them play?
VAR has made the game better....
Nope.
The miniscule focus they go into decisions now, or analyse decisions, we would never have gone into before VAR. I'd love to go back to how it was.
Nope.
The miniscule focus they go into decisions now, or analyse decisions, we would never have gone into before VAR. I'd love to go back to how it was.
I am and it's about as correct as saying Andre Onana is better than Edwin van der Sar
PES 21 is still light years ahead of EAFC26.
Im playing FIFA16 for some nostalgia right now and that's also much better than EAFC26. Somehow FIFA has regressed in the past 10 years.. that's what no competition will do. Partly Konamis fault for completely dropping the ball in the PS3 era
Rivaldo was seriously underrated.
BUT DIFFICULT PERSONALITY