26 Jun 2024 20:36:25
I think a big problem for me is that players are over coached, they are more like PlayStation players.
Players look scared to do anything out of the instructions given by coaches and managers. Look at Gascoine, he played off the cuff. Best player of his generation, but could play his own game. He was a maverick. We don't see gazza type players, the dutch team now has to be one of the worst dutch teams ever. The French don't look that great, but Spain are masters at PlayStation football. I've enjoyed Albania, Georgia at these euros.
The premier league has become the same old same old. Why don't we see proper wingers that can go by players with ball skills and can cross a ball? I started watching football in the 60s. Every team had wingers for skill, Frank Worthington, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Steve highway, Eddie Gray, Charlie cook, Alan ball the great George best, Denis Law just to name a few. i would love to know what these players would make of the tippy-tappy football of today.
26 Jun 2024 21:35:01
Because football has evolved. The old school “Pass to Beckham and cross” has outdated.
26 Jun 2024 21:45:45
Devolved.
26 Jun 2024 22:51:57
Ronaldo and Ronaldinho both say it’s boring and they can’t watch a full match and would rather watch tennis.
27 Jun 2024 00:28:37
I feel old when Beckham is outdated.
Haven't we just been watching Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi for over a decade?
They've achieved more in the game than the likes of Stan Bowles and Frank Worthington. I'd sooner go for a light ale with Stan and Frank but if we're talking about football then they can't live with the other two.
27 Jun 2024 00:38:22
I don’t think it’s that.
Gazza was a maniac with incredible football talent. Maradona and Gazza were similar in that respect. Both maverick geniuses.
Fitness is better these days so less fatigue and therefore fewer mistakes. Tactics are better these days so every coach knows where to put their players to stifle opponents.
You can’t defend elite pace - hence Salah and Mane thriving for us. You either need elite pace or elite skill or both to see individual brilliance.
27 Jun 2024 02:56:24
Maradona and Gaza haven’t played for years.
I’m not sure that the tactics are better or how you could prove that to be honest.
@Jaguar - can you tell me how the game has evolved? Genuine question.
27 Jun 2024 05:53:00
Its not just that the football has got dull and formulaic. there's no real characters in the game anymore, as the poster above said, no mavericks. They are all stiff as boards in interviews and afraid to express themselves on the pitch. Where’s Balotelli or De Canio or Ian Wright when you need them?
27 Jun 2024 07:10:03
Football is a business for owners and an extremely lucrative employment for players.
For fans it’s entertainment and of course winning brings joys bits it’s also the way in which you win.
I for one would Struggle to motivate myself to pay lots of money to go and watch park the bus football from my team.
Not so many years ago they used to have the show boat on soccer am where players were pulling off pure entertainment skills and tricks which might not effect a result but it certainly raises the crowd.
In modern football you’d struggle to fill a 10 second segment of showboat as in this day and age showboating is the 5 yard sideways pass over the 5 yard backwards pass.
Luckily under Klopp we’ve always been entertained. Despite the moans and groans of our more possession based football the last few years trust me it was still more entertaining than 17 other teams in the league.
27 Jun 2024 07:23:05
WDW3 - by tactics are better I mean teams are all tactically astute and well prepared. There’s less difficulty in preparing tactically due to advances in technology and the fact you can watch any game any time.
27 Jun 2024 08:19:26
Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Matt Busby, Joe Mercer, Bill Nicholson, Bertie Mee, Harry Catterick, Brian Clough, Don Revie were all quite tactically astute. As you say though Ron, the difference today is technology and the in data that technology can, and does, process.
You have players being brought in who fit a certain mould, rather than someone, like Geoff Twentyman who went looking for natural football talent.
If a player can run x number of kms, complete x% of tackles successfully, and complete x% of passes successfully over a certain number of games then he is a more suitable addition than the old wayward genius.
Sure it makes the game more homogenous but it is likely to increase profit which is what the game is, and the people running the game are, alll about these days. It has morphed from entertainment for spectators into profit for the owners.
Every now and again there are players who tick all the boxes who also have, by chance, that little bit of undefinable quality - like, say, Jude Bellingham - and some who meet the criteria but who flatter to deceive due to being a bit flawed, like most of us - say Phillips and Grealish - but it’s ok because there is another young lad coming through who ticks all the boxes and we are slowly honing our psych data checks.
Look at the England midfield - they are like clones - we have played three games in the second most important competition that the national team play in and we’ve scored one goal in three games, mostly, in my honest opinion, they can’t adapt on the fly - they don’t have the aptitude or inclination to go against what they have been told to do over and over in their formative years as players.
They tick the boxes they are supposed to tick but can’t think outside of the box because from being young teenagers they have been taught to do certain things over and over and over again.
The sad thing, from my perspective as a football fan who likes to see exciting football, is that, despite the fact we scored only one goal in three qualifying group games we topped the group. A Pyrrhic victory indeed and one that the manager can’t come to terms with.
He was clearly rattled by the fans - who also want to watch (and who pay to watch) exciting, free-wheeling attacking footy - all throwing stuff at him. He has the problem too - he has his data, and the expected outcomes, but, like the players, doesn’t possess the capability to think outside the box. The only way he plays is to not lose, which is great in the modern games if you have five or six players who have ticked the penalty takers box, which is the only way we are ever likely to actually win anything with the current set up.