What is the greatest ever decade for players and teams?

[adexkola]

Why isn't Italy the number 1 team of the 2000s? They won a WC and made a Euros final (and arguably got shafted by the refs in 2002). France didn't make it out the group stages in 2002.

 

[FrankFoot]

90s, it combines athleticism and ability.

The past decade(2010s) was great in term of athleticism, better than ever, but in terms of skill and ability is probably the worst decade overall as tactics are murdering skill/ability to make players robotic.

 

[dinostar77]

Opening post is the best ive ever read on this site. Wow.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

What a great post.

For nostalgia reasons I voted for the 90's, because that's when I started watching football and supporting Utd.
I was impressed by everything back then.

 

[downunder red]

What a great read. Well done to all involved.
Hard to pick the best all star side but that 60's side makes me just dream of them playing together. Gives me goose bumps.

 

[Fortitude]

Kaka' talking about the obliteration of the #10 role reminded me of this thread.

If there's a world to even make addendums to this thread, it'll be the most tumultuous decade of all in terms of footballing upheaval, won't it? So much has gone on, and we're not even in 2024 yet.

Is it also fair to say Pep and Klopp have affected the landscape in a manner we've never seen from a pair of coaches before? Outside of mini-me's for both, there's practically no innovations are there? Ancelotti should be lauded for going his own way, so sans him.

 

[Scandi Red]

The 2000's for me.

My age clearly makes me biased, but it feels like the era with the best balance. You still had fun flair players and niche specialists, but you also needed to be a top athlete. I know that the same could be said of the 90's, but a lot of the fun players from that era kept playing deep into the 2000's anyways. That's why it just about edges it for me. I also think that the speed and quality of the 2000's is significantly higher than in the 90's.

Or to make it simpler: when in doubt, go for the Ronaldinho era.

 

[Cloud7]

I can't remember the 90s, so from the football that I remember watching, the 00's

 

[Hammondo]

Depends what u mean by greatest ever, do you mean for entertainment or just how good team were.

 

[Scandi Red]

Depends what u mean by greatest ever, do you mean for entertainment or just how good team were.

For me "greatest" is a mix of quality and entertainment.

The quality has risen slightly in the 2010's and 2020's. But the entertainment value has dropped more than the quality has risen, so for me the 2000's is the greatest decade.

 

[Hammondo]

For me "greatest" is a mix of quality and entertainment.

The quality has risen slightly in the 2010's and 2020's. But the entertainment value has dropped more than the quality has risen, so for me the 2000's is the greatest decade.

I think quality had a big jump comparing the 90s and 00s, not sure about 00s to 20s though.

 

[Righteous Steps]

80’s and 00’s.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

Football used to be more competitive back in the day. Now, we witness the results of the Bosman ruling and the full commercialization of the sport in full effect. The birth of super clubs. Having said that, competitiveness is one part of entertainment. The actual quality of the football is much better nowadays. You have even midtable clubs or relegation candidates trying to make something happen with the ball. I'm all for a bit of nostalgia now and again, but i'll never say that decade when Mourinho's tactics reigned supreme and almost every tactical change was a defensive-minded one was the heyday of the beautiful game.

 

[Scandi Red]

I think quality had a big jump comparing the 90s and 00s, not sure about 00s to 20s though.

No disagreements there. I do think that players are little more tidy on the ball and fit overall these days, but not by much. And while it's purely speculative from my part, I think players don't party as hard as they used to. By the late 2000's we had pretty much already reached the point where there's not much room for improvement. We went from big leaps in quality to marginal, incremental improvements. It's all in the small details now.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

I saw not much difference in 90s (post offside and backpass change) to most of the 00s, either in fitness or tactics, definitely not some huge jump. i'd say better quality pitches on average was more significant in comparing those two.the 70s/80s to 90s was bigger because of the impact of backpass and offside change alone. The 00s was a moribund time tactically that did little to move on from the 90s until Guardiola's possession/positional style took off. Things like the English league discovering 3 man midfields decades after other leagues were considered significant tactical "revolutions" worthy of hype during the early part of the '00s ffs.

Roughly speaking, i'd group the post-war stylistic era's into:

50s and 60s...though there's enough going on here in terms of tactical changes you could easily argue for both as standalone, but it's harder to assess if you're not ancient enough to be there first-hand, because of comparitive lack of footage available.

70s and 80s... variations of 3's and 2's for midfield and forward lines/4's and 5's for defence now dominant. Similar tactics, fitness, ruleset, pressing, multi-functional players become trendier. Often not good pitch quality.

90s and 00s until pep's barca...backpass ban and more lenient offside rule for attackers changes playstyles which then stay within similar tactical trends as previous decades, just becoming more refined. teams become more compact, fitness becomes more widely professional and analytic in many leagues, far better average quality of pitch in most decent leagues by the 00s. depth of competitiveness begins to erode post-bosman.

late 00s to present. Globalised tactical era begins spearheaded by Guardiola and Klopp's refinement of earlier concepts, out of which comes good pressing and possession as a new expected standard, rather than just as stylistic choice of some teams. Concept of multi-functional players in most positions is fully consolidated, though imo you can argue this happened at different times in different leagues throughout the decades. uniform high level of fitness leading to clearly faster games on average than 20th century stuff, stats/analytics era takes off. superteam/fewer amount of leagues dominance is fully consolidated. Sport fully devolves into corrupt capitalist excess.

 

[Hammondo]

I saw not much difference in 90s (post offside and backpass change) to most of the 00s, either in fitness or tactics, definitely not some huge jump. i'd say better quality pitches on average was more significant in comparing those two.the 70s/80s to 90s was bigger because of the impact of backpass and offside change alone. The 00s was a moribund time tactically that did little to move on from the 90s until Guardiola's possession/positional style took off. Things like the English league discovering 3 man midfields decades after other leagues were considered significant tactical "revolutions" worthy of hype during the early part of the '00s ffs.

Roughly speaking, i'd group the post-war era's before we saw bigger changes into:

50s and 60s...though there's enough going on here you could easily argue for both as standalone, but it's harder to assess if you're not ancient enough to be there first-hand, because of comparitive lack of footage available.

70s and 80s... variations of 3's and 2's for midfield and forward lines/4's and 5's for defence now dominant. Similar tactics, fitness, ruleset, pressing, multi-functional players become trendier. Often not good pitch quality.

90s and 00s until pep's barca...backpass ban and more lenient offside rule for attackers changes playstyles which then stay within similar tactical trends as previous decades, just becoming more refined. teams become more compact, fitness becomes more widely professional and analytic in many leagues, far better average quality of pitch in most decent leagues by the 00s. depth of competitiveness begins to erode post-bosman.

late 00s to present. Globalised tactical era begins spearheaded by Guardiola and Klopp's refinement of earlier concepts, out of which comes good pressing and possession as a new expected standard, rather than just as stylistic choice of some teams. Concept of multi-functional players in most positions is fully consolidated, though imo you can argue this happened at different times in different leagues throughout the decades. uniform high level of fitness leading to clearly faster games on average than 20th century stuff, stats/analytics era takes off. superteam/fewer amount of leagues dominance is fully consolidated. Sport fully devolves into corrupt capitalist excess.

I think there is a huge difference between 90s and 00s, far more organised, much fitter, just generally a lot more structure. Football changed so much in that period.

 

[Frank Grimes]

The 70's had 3 great European dynasties (Ajax, Bayern and Liverpool) and also had probably the greatest international team of all time (Brazil 70) so that's my first instinct. Also had a Netherlands team that reached back to back World Cup finals.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

I think there is a huge difference between 90s and 00s, far more organised, much fitter, just generally a lot more structure. Football changed so much in that period.

maybe this is more of an English perspective as i think it changed the most in out of the bigger leagues?

Splitting things into compete decades is only good enough for a quick unscientific look at things from us fans, really. It's the backpass/offside change that is the big one from me, then another big shift with Guardiola/fully globalised/stats/consolidated modern sports science for more than just a handful of clubs era. earlier decades you had the big changes in late 60s/early 70s when many of the first half of 20th century standard formations and tactical notions were left in the past, or became far more niche.

If you change the timing of the 10 year seperations and look at loads of different league games from 84-86 compared to 1994-96, then ones from 94-96 to 04-06, i think there's more similarities in the way the game is played for the mid 90s to mid 00s period. Then from 2008 to 2012-14, or so, that's when bigger changes happened that 2020s football can be quickly traced back to.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

I think the 90s were the peak of football spectacle in terms of balance in competitions and equality between teams, players and leagues and a good opportunity for individuality to flourish. In terms of the best players though, it wouldn't be the best.

But I think the 10s would be hard to beat in a match and I don't think it would be recency bias to say that. I always argue against 'new is always better' narratives, but if you're putting the teams together then a team with Messi for a start is tough to beat, then you have his mate Ronaldo, 2014 Neuer, Lahm or Dani Alves RB, 2011-12 Xavi and Iniesta in midfield to name just a few players.

In terms of the biggest stars though, I'd go for 60s or 80s. 80s would be my next pick after 10s, Strong defenders plus Maradona, Van Basten, Zico, Platini in attack.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

Sky sports often show the Leeds v Liverpool game from circa 2000 (Leeds winning 4-3 with Viduka scoring 4). It's widely accepted as a classic of the Premier League era.

I watched it back recently and it was helter-skelter caveman shit from both teams. Entertaining for sure, but almost like a different sport to how it's played now.

 

[justboy68]

For me the late 90's/Early 00's was the pinnacle of football. I'm well aware there's a healthy dose of nostalgia in that but it just felt like the balance was better across Europe. You had a pretty even distribution of powerhouse teams across England, Spain, Italy and even Germany had the occasional good side to complement Bayern. Some cracking players with more of a focus on ingenuity and vision than pure athleticism, spread out across the different juggernauts. It all started going downhill when fecking Abramovic bought Chelsea.

 

[matherto]

90s, it combines athleticism and ability.

The past decade(2010s) was great in term of athleticism, better than ever, but in terms of skill and ability is probably the worst decade overall as tactics are murdering skill/ability to make players robotic.

To have the ability and skill to be so robotic must mean the base level of technical skill and ability is higher than its ever been.

I too don’t like the robotisation and lack of individual maverick types these days but the level of ability throughout current football blows every other era out of the water.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

For me the late 90's/Early 00's was the pinnacle of football. I'm well aware there's a healthy dose of nostalgia in that but it just felt like the balance was better across Europe. You had a pretty even distribution of powerhouse teams across England, Spain, Italy and even Germany had the occasional good side to complement Bayern. Some cracking players with more of a focus on ingenuity and vision than pure athleticism, spread out across the different juggernauts. It all started going downhill when fecking Abramovic bought Chelsea.

Plenty of good games from that time, but balance had already been going downhill fast since the bosman ruling. By 2000 was when the CL started getting bloated with extra teams and tedious grinds like the second-group stages.

 

[Jeppers7]

Wow great post, well done on the work put into that. One disappointment…The Busby Babes have to be mentioned. I’m not sure how you could make the OP with no mention of that team.

 

[justboy68]

Plenty of good games from that time, but balance had already been going downhill fast since the bosman ruling. By 2000 was when the CL started getting bloated with extra teams and tedious grinds like the second-group stages.

Fair. I was too young for early 90's/mid 90's football and suspect it might have been even better.

 

[black country red]

Definitely the 70s three great World Cups with some brilliant players on show some real classic european games and to top it all Tommy docs mid 70s United playing football the busby way poetry in motion

 

[Fortitude]

Was thinking about this decade in terms of how many things have gone on in such a short period of time - perhaps the most tumultuous of them all (football is like an insane soap opera now)? Not even sure I have a track on everything up to now, and it's only 2024.

Should the write up for the 20's be in two parts? i.e 2020-'25 and then closing?

Outside of the Bosman ruling and the English club ban, I can't think of anything that has caused ceaseless controversies like we have now. Also, tactically and in terms of playing styles, this kind of homogeny hasn't been seen since the 1950's, has it?