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Post by johnboy14 on Dec 26, 2023 15:47:28 GMT
I find players with a good touch and talent tend to move faster than those without those abilities. I think we're living in an age of mediocre players. The players of yester year were better in my opinion. If you watch Jaap Stams interview on Gazs show, he talks about having to cover vast spaces and going one on one with strikers all the time. You were expected to do that and not rely on two sitting players to save your sorry ass. Football tactics have evolved but in my opinion turned players into robots. Yeah I listened to the Jaap episode and found that discussion about the way he and Ronny were asked to defend fascinating. Michael Owen said something recently about how all you need now is to be able to cover ground and you can have a career in the Premier League. I don’t think I completely agree with him, as I think the technical aspects of the game are valued higher now than they were 25 years ago. However, tactics have definitely nullified freedom of thought and expression. The first instance of that I can remember is José turning Joe Cole into a functional wide player at Chelsea. Absolutely unrecognisable from the player he was before. Which was great for José and probably Chelsea in terms of what they needed to achieve, but definitely came at the expense of the fun and freedom of breathtaking trickery. He wrecked Joe Cole and Damien Duff for that matter. Robben managed to escape before he got ruined also. There's a difference between coaching wasteful showboating out of someone's game and coaching all creativity out. Just look at the standard of Brazilian players now.
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