It's not going to change and there really isn't any way to change it. Coaches are going to coach and as long as the modern athlete keeps getting better and stronger, an aggressive, pressing style is the most effective. I remember a video about the '98 World Cup and the Brazilians moaning that they weren't "playing Brazilian football". Yeah, you got two guys there in Viera and Desailly just begging you to "play Brazilian football" so they can pick your pocket and take it the other way. Game is more athletic now and coaches are – rightly – taking advantage of it.
I have always loved Kingsley – one of my favorite underrated (my opinion) players. But I even love him more now seeing how articulate he is and how good is understanding of the game is
I'm glad I've retired as a Football fan, watched during the years of players like Ronaldinho, Beckham, Zidane, Rooney, Ronaldo, Henry, Messi, and plenty more.
To win and be consistent at the top level, you will at some point need that "system" I see people hating. Even the Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta eras were built on a system. Systems guarantee wins. Who would want to express freedom and not win anything at the end ? . That same system gave City the treble with grealish not scoring up to 15 goals but he was crucial that season playing and being fit in that same system. People hate change. It's as simple as that.
Efficiency is great. ESSENTIAL actually. BUT…the joy of the game also matters. I still miss the Okocha's and Ronaldinho's of the game. Players who were wizards of the game in terms of expressing themselves through creative easy-on-the-eye play, but also moving forward to make that count where it matters – the scoreboard. It's truly been a dull affair at times.
The moment you start "playing" football as it's some type of tactic, you kill yourself the joy of it. Plus its way more not pleasant to watch. I genuinely HATE watching football nowadays. Footballers nowadays are stronger than rugby players wtf. Football nowadays is rugby with legs. Where is the joga bonito? How did we lose this type of play. Winning is NOT everything, especially in football.
This is why if you love football you love Barcelona. Magicians in every generation for many years now, definitely the best team to watch nowadays. Pedri and Yamal are special
It's a lie. The truth is current players are simply not talented. They just want to play football for money so they do all they can to get an opportunity but this was not the case in those days where people wanted to showcase their talent.
I was talking about the same thing years ago! The tragedy is that the street football culture is disappearing when this is the culture that gave us the most iconic geniuses in the history of football. I remembered that's exactly how Cristiano started too! He played with older guys, the 16, 17, and 18-year-olds in Madeira, and was constantly kicking ball and training on Maderia's twisted roads that meander between volcanic mountains. This is why he was such a pure, skillful entertainer in his young days until he had healthy legs for it. This is the type of old-school, creative, and tough learning process that most talented and iconic footballers have gone through, and unfortunately, it's disappearing now.
Today, kids mainly practice from a young age, in well-equipped youth academies, where everything is organized so that it goes 'smoothly'. The irony is, that sometimes this type of environment is 'too perfect' and 'too smooth'. It doesn't allow kids to encounter real difficulties on their way and consequently doesn't teach them how to overcome these obstacles. It doesn't help develop a good, sporty, strong mentality.
Learning on the street is much harder, and requires hard work, character, and creativity from the beginning because you don't have the equipment or the professional help, you only have your own body& brain, and the street. It's better for footballing development than the academy, skill-wise and mentality-wise.
This is exactly why the greatest geniuses and the most iconic legends in the history of football were always street footballers, coming from street culture. I believe the last generation to benefit from street culture is exactly the Cristiano/Iniesta/Rooney generation, specifically those born in the mid-80s. The reason is that this is the last generation whose adolescence occurred during a time when there were still no phones, laptops, TVs, and social media everywhere in our lives, allowing kids to play outside more often. Nowadays, we produce perfect robots in academies, but rarely the interesting, creative characters and geniuses that street football gave us!
And this is exactly what modern game is missing – the magic. Cristiano from 2003 to 2015 was a pure joy to watch, but he had to leave his natural pure winger/entertainer drive and his amazing skills behind to adapt to his age, specifically to his destroyed legs (he has suffered from chronic tendinosis in his knees since late 2014) plus to the demands of the modern game which exactly relies on more and more games being played, so on more physical side and stats. This is not the players' fault but all these white-collar football executives who want and organize more and more games, solely due to their greediness! I mean players' union has been protesting this and talking about this for a long time, Cristiano himself talked about it recently at the Global Soccer Awards. And the players are right – fans also don't need more games. We need fewer games, but with better quality, and we can achieve this exactly partly by reducing the number of games!
This is why I always laugh when anyone compares Mbappe or Haaland to Cristiano – yes, they both have been scoring tons of goals from a young age, but this is because they play more games in general nowadays, and also, they only have score and run, but nothing of the younger Cristiano flair, skills, and just pure magic!
One day, when money stops flowing in as much, there might be the need for a change and a new coach with old ideas on a new hat might sweep some trophys again with magic football.
39 Comments
Look at Bernardo Silva, one of the best dribblers back then. Not man can’t even dribble to save his life. His game has changed so much.
It's not going to change and there really isn't any way to change it. Coaches are going to coach and as long as the modern athlete keeps getting better and stronger, an aggressive, pressing style is the most effective. I remember a video about the '98 World Cup and the Brazilians moaning that they weren't "playing Brazilian football". Yeah, you got two guys there in Viera and Desailly just begging you to "play Brazilian football" so they can pick your pocket and take it the other way. Game is more athletic now and coaches are – rightly – taking advantage of it.
I have always loved Kingsley – one of my favorite underrated (my opinion) players.
But I even love him more now seeing how articulate he is and how good is understanding of the game is
Very true! This has been my point of view. Football is getting more interesting on PS than in d real world
I'm glad I've retired as a Football fan, watched during the years of players like Ronaldinho, Beckham, Zidane, Rooney, Ronaldo, Henry, Messi, and plenty more.
The era I grew up in had so many great unique magicians to watch. Today the football is dull and lacks physicality.
Cantona
Zola
Bergkamp
Figo
Ronaldo
Zidane
Del Pierro
Kaka
Hagi
Stoichkov
Okocha
Baggio
Weah
Rivaldo
Ginola
The bunching of statistically brilliant players does suffocate the indivdual gamechanger or even risk taker imo
To win and be consistent at the top level, you will at some point need that "system" I see people hating. Even the Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta eras were built on a system. Systems guarantee wins. Who would want to express freedom and not win anything at the end ? . That same system gave City the treble with grealish not scoring up to 15 goals but he was crucial that season playing and being fit in that same system. People hate change. It's as simple as that.
No! The absurd amount of games is doing it 😠
things took their natural course. its competition and poeple are trying to win. being efficient is simply better. it is what it is
It has become too scientific. So the spiritual side of football dies with it
When Nicolas Pepe came to Arsenal, I saw him try flashiness. It didn’t work. I think there’s a time and a place.
Football is a business….and that's where it went wrong. Too much money involved ruined the art and genuine beauty of the game.
They not take joy every time they see their pay check rolling in often for doing very little?
Efficiency is great. ESSENTIAL actually. BUT…the joy of the game also matters. I still miss the Okocha's and Ronaldinho's of the game. Players who were wizards of the game in terms of expressing themselves through creative easy-on-the-eye play, but also moving forward to make that count where it matters – the scoreboard. It's truly been a dull affair at times.
The game used to be 100% more fun to play and watch. Nowadays it's not about skills. It's about athletisism
efficiency or bad players ?
Two words results and money that’s all. The end
Betting is killing the game
The moment you start "playing" football as it's some type of tactic, you kill yourself the joy of it. Plus its way more not pleasant to watch. I genuinely HATE watching football nowadays. Footballers nowadays are stronger than rugby players wtf. Football nowadays is rugby with legs. Where is the joga bonito? How did we lose this type of play. Winning is NOT everything, especially in football.
Antony gave us emotions
This was very evident in the Man City – Inter Final, very Very Boring
football used to be entertainment, now its just for betting
This is why if you love football you love Barcelona. Magicians in every generation for many years now, definitely the best team to watch nowadays. Pedri and Yamal are special
In America 🇺🇸 we see this trend in baseball ⚾️ and basketball 🏀
In a MY perfect world: Liverpool win all the trophies- and every other team plays entertaining football.
Please and thank you Football Gods.
It's a lie. The truth is current players are simply not talented. They just want to play football for money so they do all they can to get an opportunity but this was not the case in those days where people wanted to showcase their talent.
Rafael Leo
Money ruined the game. These teams are so scared of missing out on the golden money tree it’s not worth the risk
it is a joy to win, and win consistently
Summarized everything.
I was talking about the same thing years ago! The tragedy is that the street football culture is disappearing when this is the culture that gave us the most iconic geniuses in the history of football. I remembered that's exactly how Cristiano started too! He played with older guys, the 16, 17, and 18-year-olds in Madeira, and was constantly kicking ball and training on Maderia's twisted roads that meander between volcanic mountains. This is why he was such a pure, skillful entertainer in his young days until he had healthy legs for it. This is the type of old-school, creative, and tough learning process that most talented and iconic footballers have gone through, and unfortunately, it's disappearing now.
Today, kids mainly practice from a young age, in well-equipped youth academies, where everything is organized so that it goes 'smoothly'. The irony is, that sometimes this type of environment is 'too perfect' and 'too smooth'. It doesn't allow kids to encounter real difficulties on their way and consequently doesn't teach them how to overcome these obstacles. It doesn't help develop a good, sporty, strong mentality.
Learning on the street is much harder, and requires hard work, character, and creativity from the beginning because you don't have the equipment or the professional help, you only have your own body& brain, and the street. It's better for footballing development than the academy, skill-wise and mentality-wise.
This is exactly why the greatest geniuses and the most iconic legends in the history of football were always street footballers, coming from street culture. I believe the last generation to benefit from street culture is exactly the Cristiano/Iniesta/Rooney generation, specifically those born in the mid-80s. The reason is that this is the last generation whose adolescence occurred during a time when there were still no phones, laptops, TVs, and social media everywhere in our lives, allowing kids to play outside more often. Nowadays, we produce perfect robots in academies, but rarely the interesting, creative characters and geniuses that street football gave us!
And plyers like you taking milions every minutes..has already killed the game.
And this is exactly what modern game is missing – the magic. Cristiano from 2003 to 2015 was a pure joy to watch, but he had to leave his natural pure winger/entertainer drive and his amazing skills behind to adapt to his age, specifically to his destroyed legs (he has suffered from chronic tendinosis in his knees since late 2014) plus to the demands of the modern game which exactly relies on more and more games being played, so on more physical side and stats. This is not the players' fault but all these white-collar football executives who want and organize more and more games, solely due to their greediness!
I mean players' union has been protesting this and talking about this for a long time, Cristiano himself talked about it recently at the Global Soccer Awards. And the players are right – fans also don't need more games. We need fewer games, but with better quality, and we can achieve this exactly partly by reducing the number of games!
This is why I always laugh when anyone compares Mbappe or Haaland to Cristiano – yes, they both have been scoring tons of goals from a young age, but this is because they play more games in general nowadays, and also, they only have score and run, but nothing of the younger Cristiano flair, skills, and just pure magic!
I've stopped watching football and just watch rugby now because footballs become such a snooze fest with no flair or skill anymore.
F1 is the same story.
One day, when money stops flowing in as much, there might be the need for a change and a new coach with old ideas on a new hat might sweep some trophys again with magic football.
No.. What's killing the game is money, plain and simple.
Long ball is efficient. Bring it back
Someone was putting words in someone's mouth and driving them into their narrative🤣🤣