Go onto Instagram reels comments section to see this isn't true in the slightest
What's good/better about football today?
- Thread starter adexkola
- Start date
I think most top teams aim to play entertaining football and there is less parking of the bus tactics at the highest level. That's not to say football is always entertaining but I feel as though teams are generally a bit more adventurous.
Defenders of that calibre are few and far between these days.
Tackling is a dying art. Last season in the PL only one player made over 100 tackles. Fifteen years ago over twenty players did.
I think they're both. They're undoubtedly better athletes because that's just the way things work with modern coaching and medical improvements but to be able to create such systemic play, you need a base level that's high, very high because humans aren't naturally robotic, we're imperfect.
Every position on the pitch including the goalkeeper is now comfortable on the ball. Nearly every team passes out from the back, nearly every team plays a similar way - worse for variety of course but the nearer you get to that same style, the more 'perfect' it becomes. To be monotonous and robotic you need a consistent level and these players now are consistently great.
You might need to go back and watch old games but there were some absolute cloggers on the pitch, usually lumbering CB's or midfielders who couldn't control or pass a ball to save their lives and made up for it by kicking people instead and heading everything that moved. The long ball game was in part because of players not being comfortable on the ball. It was easier to skill your way past the opposition because they simply weren't as good.
The general standard of play now is better than it's ever been because everyone is within a smaller boundary of quality and it's raised up to the point where coaches can and do micromanage things. You simply couldn't do that with 90's players or even older than that.
The very best were still the very best but aside from the fact that they weren't homogenised into one team so much and were allowed to roam free with their quality, they were facing vastly worse players technically and physically. The best athletes shone more back then than they do now because so many others weren't that great athletically.
Some may view this as a curse, but I enjoy how more intricate details of the game have filtered down to casual conversation. Disclaimer: asking for your striker to play as a false 9 at the local Sunday game deserves a kicking. But it's great seeing presenters and column writers and content creators move beyond cliches and educating laymen on the role of different players in a match, tactics, adjustments, and so on.
I know some have mentioned this, but the women's game gaining momentum, and it being more unacceptable to be a dick when speaking about it, is great.
Injuries that were career death sentences 20 years ago are now routine surgery and rehab. Plus butcher fouls being frowned upon. It would have been great to see a player like Van Basten in today's game.
I know some have mentioned this, but the women's game gaining momentum, and it being more unacceptable to be a dick when speaking about it, is great.
Injuries that were career death sentences 20 years ago are now routine surgery and rehab. Plus butcher fouls being frowned upon. It would have been great to see a player like Van Basten in today's game.
I'm with you on this but with the proviso that I hope someday soon Jamie Redknapp is phased out of punditry and hopefully thrown in the sea. The king of cliched nonsense bollocks making a point about nothing but saying a lot of words. I think the internet/Youtube has a lot to do with it too, the access to tactical information and the desire of fans to learn about these things has moved way beyond the cliched pundit's remit on Sky/TNT/MOTD.
Also agreed on the other two points.
The women's game's history is fascinating and a damning indictment of the misogyny and sexism relating to men's position at the top of the pecking order for generations. It's still there attitudinally but nowhere near as much and great for the women playing currently and great for young girls growing up to potentially become footballers and make a great career out of it. England winning the Euros will hopefully be absolutely massive in the near future.
The argument I have about the physical and technical level of players all over the game being higher than ever before is bolstered by their being less to no butcher fouls anymore. Typically they were done by psychopaths who couldn't really play football, now there aren't many that aren't genuine professionals that can indeed play football to a very high technical level, some of them are still psychopaths though.