Has Football ACTUALLY Got Worse?
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- Опубликовано: 31 мар 2024
- Comparisons have always been made between teams and players in different generations, but recently, a lot of people have made the claim that footballers have got worse in recent years, and that the game has become less fun, entertaining, and enjoyable.
And yet, the sport has never been more competitive, in terms of the pool of players aiming to become professional, more popular, or more lucrative.
So in this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the claims, counter-claims, and comparisons, and attempts to figure out whether football really has got worse and what we mean by that, or whether it is all just nostalgia. 
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Releasing this the day after that utter snooze fest between city and arsenal is great timing
😂😂😂😂
Personally I thought they still looked like the two best teams in the league
169th like :)
@@solarmaru49 the two best teams in the league w/ their attackers having an off day. Defenders was still great tho.
@@Lilleh__ 8 CBs and 4 DMs were on the field at the same time 😭😭😭
So you haven’t gone with the idea of making an all time bald XI? You’ve made an enemy of me Alfie Potts Harmer.
Lmfao!!😂😂😂
Alfie of 2020 would've made one
@@waffle.supplyno longer the peoples channel
Only if he does all time long hair XI
Zidane, Charlton, Leboeuf, Robben, Stam, Gravesen, Kompany, Vially, Cambiasso, Zabaleta. Goalkeeper: Barthez Referee and most bald of all: Collina
Those 2006 squads... damn.
CRAZY TIMES. mid table teams would clap your cheeks if you were caught lacking 😂.
Slower, less fit, less developed than current generation.
most of those players would struggle against mid table teams in the prem today
@@lenneth1188 Just to make clear, I meant the international squads at the 2006 World Cup.
@@lenneth1188goid joke
Football has probably improved in terms of quality but has gone down the shitter in terms of being a spectacle
Maybe in terms of athletic ability and tactical efficiency. Which means modern teams would most likely beat teams from back then.
But football is meant to be a spectator sport so it has gone down in quality.
the average player is more talented, but the top players not so much.
Is it just me or we barely see any free kick or longe range goals nowdays, while before those were regular?
@@stefan5730 Juninho 🙌🙌. Now that guy was gifted.
I think individual talent, Passion and fighting spirit has decreased in today's football, but tactically today's football is better
VAR being scapegoated is ironic. It just exposed how bad the referees are. Back then, there was so many bad calls and the same people who used to cry about those decisions will be the same ones who hate VAR. Refereeing needs a huge overhaul.
VAR started when both Messi and Ronaldo were on the edge of their prime, thing is, all of Barca and Real UCL wins, also copa america being like every 3 months and WC 2022 in Qatar, all of that was a clear push for the biggest stars to get their trophies. every year there is some match that is questionable referee calls...
@@ST-tf4sqyeah..copa America every 3 month..sure mate.. keep on being salty
I would say players have become better tactically and become efficient , however the reason why people think old is better than new because of How open ended games used to be, now most games are very tactical and cagey
As someone watching both regional and top flight football i can say you this:
No. VAR makes the game worse.
You also can accept a bad call way better when there isnt a second referee using 5 minutes of our time and modern technology withseveral replays and angles and still make a bad call.
The fact that people stay quite after a goal when there is even the slightest chance of something, somewhere, maybe, possibly wrong 5 minutes earlier is a death sentence.
Either copy it from the sports that know how to do it (eg everyone else), including imposing a strict timelimit and assess the quality of refereeing or let it be. But since football officials are unable to not want to reinvent the wheel our best shot is getting rid of it.
@@LiftandCoaAccepting a bad call better without VAR? Nearly 38 years and Peter Shilton still can't accept a bad call without VAR...
“Nobody would suggest that Man city and Pep are getting the best out of Guardiola” got me laughing so hard.
Name's Guardiola. Jack Guardiola. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 14:06
Came to comment this myself. Had to run it back because I thought I was tripping. 🤣
Guardiola at Villa Park 💀💀💀
i just heard that and lost it 😂😂
You will probably see this video in 1-4 weeks now lol good stuff
Jack Guardiola 😅
Are we still saying that Cantona's press conference wasn't an obvious dig at the reporters, who all joined together to pretend to be stupid rather than understand.
I genuinely think the English press back then were just that stupid
Yeah, that conference statement sounded very clear
Excuse me? Then tell me what it was they understood that I don't if you think you know what he was saying.
The idea is that the press reporters are seagulls waiting for him to throw them metaphorical sardines, which he wasnt going to do. It's hard to know if that was intentional, but it makes sense.
There is an irony in that his seagull speech was a massive news story though. @@TheEyeball37
Watching city win things is about as satisfying and authentic as watching a computer winning a chess match. Soulless and boring. That's not even counting the off field stuff.
Football certainly feels less fun than it did 10-15 years ago. The days of watching Ronaldinho tearing up the pitch and pulling off audacious skills and tricks in matches have long gone.
Now that the money has gotten silly in the game and that VAR has now become a cliche of a talking point, it feels like we arnt actually talking about football anymore but the circumstances in which the game is played. Money, transfers and VAR have become a distraction to how we watch football now
I mean he was the greatest
Well, now Ronaldinho has overshadowed his football career in retirement after trying to circumvent a travel ban (his Spanish and Brazilian passports were confiscated for tax offences) by travelling with a fake Paraguayan passport to Paraguay. He sat 5 months in prison and house arrest for it, and IMO should have been convicted for it. But I guess "Rules for thee but not for me" does work because he was allowed to leave Paraguay completely unscathed. And THAT is not an April Fools Joke.
@@bundesautobahn7Blud NOBODY thinks about his controversies before his actual quality 😐
Sorry mate but we have to go back 20 years to see Ronaldinho still in his prime. 15 years ago was 2009 😱
Who talks about the circumstances football is played in. People who are passionate about football still talk about the football games somewhat. Money and tranfers should not distract you between football game, when that would be weird, if it did distract you.😂
Football did peak in 2006, great unique players, exciting games, even when it comes to console games, the great Pro Evolution 6 came out in 2006. I never knew how good I had it. Had I known I would have appreciated that time even more.
Nah, our youth peaked in 2006...I barely watch any football now, but I mostly blame my age
I was still 25/26 around that time, yeah I’m an old grumpy man now 😅😂
@@marko39383 your age is a shitty excuse , there’s 80 year olds that go to every match
@@Lukemasonmedia and waste their time and money watching a corporate dance.
@@mohmmadnabeehasan4672 But they’re not miserable and bitter like yourself.
The trend towards ever increasing efficiency in football reminds me oddly of the popularity of Backgammon. It’s been around for millennia but backgammon became really popular for gambling in the 1960s and 70s because they added a ‘doubling cube’ which meant either player could double the amount of money they were playing for at any time and the other player either has to accept the new stakes or concede the game. This made it incredibly popular in high stakes culture because any game was a few doubles away from being contested for outrageous amounts of money. There were huge world championship tournaments held in luxury resorts in the Caribbean with massive prize money, it’s also why it appears in the James Bond film Octopussy in 1983. What ended up killing backgammon though is once these tournaments started having huge financial incentives people took the time to create backgammon strategies that gave you the best statistical likelihood of winning. The games became predictable and formulaic and as these new strategist dominated, the loss of the unpredictability that brought it to prominence made the super independently wealthy fans lose interest. In turn the money being pumped into the tournaments dried up and so even the strategists left because it wasn’t a viable money making game anymore and now there is basically no such thing as a high stakes backgammon scene and there probably won’t be ever again. All that’s to say if football really is becoming more boring because of increasing efficiency, if it becomes a ‘solved’ game where we know what the best way to achieve success tactically will that drive fans away? And if it will how do you fix it or return to a more entertaining product?
Backgammon was not on my bingo card of anticipated responses. Kudos to you good sir.
@@lesbo37 if Alfie made a video about high-stakes backgammon it would be AMAZING! Brilliant comment by the op!
This is what's happening to baseball now its been effiencied down to the 3 true outcomes of walk strikeout or home run. It sucks but you can't really help modern analytics.
@@corbing7786 Juiced balls and perfectly groomed fields have a lot to do with that
The 3 outcomes becomes less viable if the home runs become long fly balls and bunts and slow grounders become an adventure to field
Very interesting to read, my only hope is that while we feel close to a solved game of fitness and positional play, there will still be tactical geniuses waiting in the wings ready to reinvent peak football.
The hype leading up to the 06 World Cup was incredible. The Joga Bonito campaign with Cantona and the Brazil team… everything was just hype.
I miss the old Brazil
Yeah and Brazil hasn’t won in what will be 24-25 years by next WC. All that hype and posturing only to get smoked….that’s really what lead to the shift
Ah yes, the dirtiest game in fifa history🇳🇱🇵🇹..all I remember is my dad yelling at the tv almost every minute or two, he was cussing out every player besides the keepers...what a horrendous game. And we lost as well. And 13 years later, we lost to portugal 1-0 again in nations league final. Portugal is Oranje's boogey team.
You should look up a match Chile - Italy at the 1962 World Cup. The battle of Santiago. They have karate kicks, boxing, rugby tackles, a player removed from the pitch by the police. There's a video I'd recommend "Italy v Chile World Cup 1962 The Battle of Santiago" from a channel called broodje80. It has the reporter at the start questioning whether the World Cup can survive that match, calling it "the most stupid, disgusting exhibition of football in history". So... check it out! 😀
Every team is a Dutch bogey team
Holland also lost to Portugal on three other occassions that were significant:
In late 2000, they lost 2-0 at home to Portugal in Wcup qualifying which proved decisive.
They lost 2-1 in the Euro 2004 semi-final, and then 2-1 again at Euro 2012 in the group stage.
@@jammybizzle666 cap
@@hiranom20 the pain..
Watching the Man City vs Arsenal fixture yesterday, it brought to mind a chess match between two Grandmasters, rather than a game of football. The resulting stalemate was the perfect expression of this corporate control masquerading as football.
Acting as if there weren't 0-0's back in the day
@@arjunghanekar6140 Serie A at its peak had so many 0-0's and 1-0's yet no one was complaining like people are now lol
yea man there were no 0-0s or 1-0s in the prime of Serie A. nostaliga merchants are my least favorite brand of football fans
Shades of Spain-Russia in the 2018 World Cup
The Liverpool - Man City game last month was very good though, end to end and enjoyable. And as long as I’ve watched football, there have been good games and there have been bad games. The reality is yesterday we had two teams who were scared to lose, that has always happened too.
I think that the players in the past had more "specialized" traits and characters that gave you some sort of feeling that you can attach them with. Vidic, Edgar Davids, Gattuso, Roy Keane, Pirlo, Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Inzaghi, Crouch. All very different players with special traits and trademarks. Players nowadays have a more well rounded game which can makes them feel less "special" and unique. That could be a reason why the game seems more boring.
More like back then squads coaches gave their players more freedom to do what they wanted compared to today where you can't do what u want
Its the age of the internet, their are no secrets. In the past you needed to find someone that spent their days studying cwrtain tactics and revealing strategies. Nowadays their are no secrets so you cant get away with w6you could in the past. Just how all industries have affected, look at music. Everyone sounds the same, in my youth we had so many different sounding rappers and artists it was amazing
Agreed but i would put Edgar Davids out of that list tho, as he was a kinda well rounded player, probably one of the most well rounded of his generation. It's true that he was mostly known for his aggressive defense but he also got skills (unlike Gattuso). He gave the best as a cm but he also used to play winger early in his career, he was a good dribbler , could carry the ball up the field and had a deadly long shot too.
In my opinion
We probably have the most athletic and technically gifted players of all time due to sports science and fitness etc
But the players have become identical and boring with no spontaneity and need to be told what to do and when to shoot
The game also has too much cheating which slows the game down
Maybe we should use var to call out diving and we need to start booking diving more
Interesting points to ponder 👍🏽.
"The game also has too much cheating which slows the game down " Ain't no way you said that like the 00's and 90s didn't have that with the Catenaccio from Italian teams
Not that I'm disagreeing with you but Brazilians are still physically finished before they reach 30. And as a United fan i'd take the technically gifted Anderson or Nani over the more physically gifted Anthony if that guy even excels at anything. Carrick vs Mctominay - Skill vs Physicality. Dutch football from the 90's vs today. Sure they are fitter but my gawd total football was legendary. Sports science doesn't increase player skill and only benefits super disciplined players like Ronaldo or Ibra but you could argue that they are genetically superior to begin with. Didn't help Rooney. Neymar has also left the building.
@@paquinraino8180 yeah the cheating/diving is a major issue which i am dumbfounded there isnt done anything about. But it's always been like this, and has actually been worse before. Still, now that we have VAR, we definitely should focus on improving the referees to the point that they can use it to the fullest extent and go harsh on things like diving because it ruins the game
@@maciejbala477they have, there are cards for diving and time wasting now and there is more time added than ever before
Do we still not understand what Cantona was talking about in that interview!
As a man that's seen Gladiator many times, I look back and take Cantona to simply mean "Are you not entertained?"
The media followed him and hounded him for years, waiting for his customary moment of madness to arrive. It arrived. Why is everyone so shocked?
It's pretty obvious that Cantona is the trawler and the media are the seagulls. My interpretation was always that it was Cantona's way of saying, "You're only here to try and goad me into another controversy. I'm not going to give you that satisfaction. Goodbye."
You're bang on with how universal things have become; there used to be a lot more clashes of style between countries, if not between teams and managers.
Now it feels like everyone's trying to copy the same systems and same philosophies. I reckon social media and familiarity with other leagues has played a big role with that.
Yep. Same thing is happening in the actual world as well with every western country following in the steps of America (again, due to social media). Globalisation.
Honestly reminds me of in the Bible when it speaks about how the “whole world” will all come to be doing the exact same things.
Yes I used to watch certain leagues play to see the different styles of play but now it just seems like I'm watching the same thing with a different name.
Chiellini said a few years ago how Italy had lost its style trying to copy Spain and Guardiola. Instead of realising the veracity of what he said, people mostly vented against him. Italy were much better when they played their fierce defend and break style.
Unfortunately everything has gotten universal. The early days of MMA used to be one martial art against another like boxing versus wrestling but now everybody practices the same things. Even cities have lost their own uniqueness. They have the exact same stores and restaurants that you can find anywhere. It’s pretty sad
@@pritapp788 Was italy really better because of their style of play or they just had better players? I do tend for the second one. Italy couldn't even manage to win a WC in their golden era and played awful football besides having a dream team. They managed to lose a WC besides having Baggio whose probably was the most talented italian player ever. On the other hand , in recent yearrs they were somehow able to win a European cup besides possessin one of the least talented squads ever.
It’s quite interesting how much regard Pep has for a coach like Bielsa if you view their styles as differing between creating or controlling the levels of chaos within the game. Bielsa’s Leeds at their best in the premier league were basically chaos machines sometimes turning games in to farces and yet Guardiola has never ending praise for Bielsa. I think this just goes to show even the bald fraud despises the monster he has helped create.
Bielsa favors high-pressing, short-passing possession-based teams playing out of a fluid 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 formation. His training is high-intensity repetition of basic situations, such that no situation faced in a game will be entirely novel, allowing players to improvise within a fixed system.
This is essentially an extension of the Michels-Cruyff system from Ajax and Barcelona (though Bielsa developed it from Argentine sources). It surprises me not one bit that Guardiola esteems him so. Other followers of Bielsa: Mauricio Pocchetino, Jorge Sampaoli, Tata Martinez, and Diego Simeone (though Simeone is far more defensive-minded than the others).
Bielsa's downfall has always been the exhaustion of his team at the end of a season due to the intensity of his training and playing styles (usually with a small squad) -- and this you can definitely see with his Leeds teams. "If players were not human," he is said to have said, "I would never lose."
@@drs-xj3pb
I agree, it's not surprising as Bielsa's Leeds were build on a mix of high fitness levels and being exceptionally well drilled on certain movements and passes - for example there were a lot of very similar goals scored in terms of the patterns of play that led to them. While it probably looked chaotic to someone who hadn't seen much of them it was extremely well organised but took a lot of calculated risks in the build up play and often shunned the more 'pragmatic' side of the game (e.g. continuing to attack with the same levels of risk rather than slowing the game down to hold onto a narrow lead)
That said, I disagree completely on the exhaustion part (at Leeds anyway).
Leeds were still going very strongly at the end of the second and third seasons under Bielsa.
The year it fell apart was in part due to his insistence on having a small squad mixed with very inadequate PL recruitment from the DoF (outside of one or two exceptions).
That and an injury crisis which saw them having a squad of about 9 fit senior players at one point and a bench in at least one match consisting entirely of a bunch of extremely inexperienced young players (the oldest being 21, the youngest being a 15 year old) who are now mostly league 1- national league players.
You could point to the injury crisis as an example of exhaustion, but I don't think that's entirely fair as iirc it was the newer signings who were often the ones most frequently out injured alongside players with lingering issues from previous injuries.
It was more the importance and positions of the injured players that caused problems; 3 CB's, 1 LB and 2 ST's, which exposed the lack of depth in other areas too with a lot of the squad having to play out of position to cover for absences (e.g Ayling at CB and Dan James as a striker), not fully fit when playing (Bamford, Rodrigo, Firpo) or simply not good enough for the premier league at that point in their career.
Robben said that had he been trained at a team like ajax, he wouldnt have become the player he was.
They have a system and all r drilled into it, meaning robbens way of playing wouldve been drilled out of him.
Players now r better athletes, more technically sound and understand tactics better, though i think thats just due to when they were born and not cuz they r actually better.
However, most players now grow up in a system or have coaches who dont allow for individuality to shine through cuz well, the system is the most important part.
Its why we dont see as many long range goals anymore, cuz statistically speaking, those r not as good a shot as one inside the box. Ive heard stories of youth team coaches (and pro coaches) giving their players shit for scoring from outside during training cuz its not "a good shot".
Ribery said once that during a game, guardiola kept shouting what to do at him and he thought "damn, just let me play the game".
Of course guardiola is a top coach, but that just shows the point of "system above everything else".
Je ne suis pas d'accord, la qualité technique de footballeurs à baisser.
If a manager is the first man sacked for poor results, it makes perfect sense that they would impose strategies that get results first. Contrary to popular belief, football is a professional sport, and as such winning tends to come before entertainment.
That was not always true. Entertainment came first before there was this much money and financial stakes in the sport.
Funny how no one ever thinks about this. Coaches get sacked if they don't win. Obvious remedy is to create a system to get the players to win.
And let’s not forget that players are getting paid to do their job on the field. Part of that, is to do what their boss tells them to do. Freedom on the pitch is not given or earned, it is a privilege and coaches will only allow it as long as it fits within their philosophy and system. The rate at which your creative freedom on the pitch is allowed will depend on the high percentage of its output.
One important point.
For unique styles and identity, we have national teams.
This creates an immense anticipation for the big tournaments, that they are, in fact, something else.
Instead of the highlight to get to see a game once a week, we get it once every two years.
These tournaments get even more special because of the respite form the weekly grind.
Let's go Sweden this summer! We have our best offense in decades, and will threaten any team!
Oh, wait. We didn't qualify.
Footballers are athletes now, first. And talent is second. When football was fun you had real ballers with talent. Now, it's just being able to run for 90 minutes without stopping.
You just saying BS just to say BS, there's still baller nowadays just like in any generation, you might not look at the right place
The thing that bothers me the most is how the players today suck at shooting the ball. Mbappe literally never scored a free kick in his life, Haaland has like maybe two goals from outside of the box in his career.
@@paquinraino8180 He watched the whole video and decided to ignore anything that was said.
@@stefan5730well, maybe because almost no-one tries to score from direct free-kick nowadays?
@@paquinraino8180 found the "just look in the right place" guy
Football has become pretty boring.
They’ve been saying it for decades but money really has ruined football.
Every player is a robot nowadays.
Very rarely does something spectacular happen. Just teams passing it about 30 yards out until they lose the ball.
Man City’s centre backs are just there to stop counter attacks. They do most of their defending on the halfway line.
Bland domination.
I miss players who just took a shot on whenever they could. You don’t get players like Bergkamp or Berbatov these days. Guys who thought outside the box and did the unexpected, Cantona, even
Tony Yeboah.
Nobody breaks the mould nowadays.
Anyone who watched the abomination of a title contention game of yesterday between City and Arsenal can simply understand that if such game of such high stakes is a snooze fest then football indeed got worse.
Everyone wants to hold onto the ball doing f*ck all with it but pass laterally because the other team are a bunch of spineless lizards with their buttocks stuck on the goal line.
There has to be a balance here. I may be speaking from a biased point of view, as a teenage football fan, but we can't pretend that the current tactical chess has become a bad idea. Recently i watched an "old school" Premier League game from the 90's and i was WIDELY surprised by the lack of quality. It was just throwing the ball long all the time, losing turnovers at the most dangerous areas. No... "La Pausa" as they call it now. Just throw, throw, kick, kick and rush. I didn't like it one bit. I mean, are those types of games the ones people are missing? Its one thing to be spineless and not try to attack, another to run like headless chickens for the goals.
@@catmeowing4329nostalgia blinds people. we'll look back at games in 30 years from now and be astonished at the lack of proper initiative and positioning too.
That's just nostalgia bias. People complained about elite club football being nothing but "parking the bus" and athleticism all through the 2000s especially in the EPL. A lot of big games in the 2000s were absolute snoozefests, people talked about it constantly back then too. High stakes games like WC and UCL semis and finals used to have a reputation for being guaranteed to be cagey and boring but have been much more exciting lately, the 2018 and 2022 WC finals and SFs were some of the most exciting ever. The 1990, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 WC finals had 7 total goals between them and 4 red cards (should've been 5 for De Jong). It was 0-0 at full time in 1994, 2010 and 2014. Both the 2018 and 2022 final had more goals than 90/94/06/10/14 finals combined
@@catmeowing4329well yh, same reason why it looks like players like ronaldhino or okocha are no more while it actually isn't true, it's that now you can't make those skills without big risk of losing the ball bc back then they gave so much space
@@catmeowing4329 Premier League in the 90's was shyte.
Serie A and La Liga and maybe even Bundesliga were of superior quality as Premier League as English football was trying to recover from the 5 year European ban that was imposed onto English clubs because of what Liverpool fans did at Heysel.
"Thirty years ago players went out with the fullest license to display their arts and crafts. Today they have to make their contributions to a system. Individuality has to be sublimated to teamwork."
Herbert Chapman 1932.
The same nonsense has been endlessly regurgitated for at least ninety years.
interesting
Watch Quang Hải - you will be amazed
He is one of the few, top class, hyperexpressive ballers in the game - putting his art on the pitch against all top players from Asia and other teams for 8 years and counting.
He is the reason why I watch Vietnamese football. Football is not just Premier League
Never heard anyone say this until recently
Wow
You either didn't watch football in the 2000s or you're just saying this to be different
It has become very robotic, systematic. Individual brilliance is not cultivated. Any expression of excellent ball control and skill is criticized as showboating and deemed unnecessary even though it's what i like the most about football. When you get dirty tackled as a result they dont always penalize the offense, as if condoning the act as punishment for having great flair.
Lots of things going on.
When Neymar got booked a few years ago for doing skills perfectly illustrates what just said here
I do not really agree. Skills need to be effective. Ronaldinho for example was showing off while being effective and its the greatest thing I've ever seen! Richarlison and Anthony do skills for the sake of skills and it's only right to critique it.
I wouldn’t say it’s worse quality wise but it’s not as entertaining and there’s less variety. There’s less space available in games than ever before because formations & players have become so optimized. The game is about structure, denying your opponent the ball and waiting for your chance. Luxury players aren’t needed, positional play is vastly more importantly.
Other things I’d add is VAR putting a spotlight on poor refereeing, social media focusing more on the negatives of the sport & the ‘money ball’ approach to building teams that clubs use. Players aren’t signed because they’re exciting, they’re signed because they fit the system.
I personally just love the 70s football, putting on the 1970 world cup semifinal and watch Siggi Held Out of nowhere dribble past four defenders like he is literally Messi and then do a cross that is so bad it looks like he never did a cross before. That is what I associate most with old football, players who are in their strong case world class in every standard but in parts of the game they are not too familiar are like literal amateurs
I absolutely do think it has gotten worse, but mostly because of just how much more money has entered the sport. That period of the mid-00s onwards has absolutely hurt the sport, where a number of things came all together. Investors entering the sport at roughly the same time as both Messi and Ronaldo emerging did a ton of damage in my opinion - prices inflated like crazy while everyone was on the hunt for the next Messi/Ronaldo. And then it stayed at that level before increasing again, which ultimately either priced out certain clubs that were doing decently well before, or forced them into unreliable gambles on the transfer market that ended up badly just to keep up. I hate it, to be honest.
Never thought the person who made the upload of "Unavoidable Battle" I have been listening to for at the very least 8 years would be in one of Alfie's videos.
I agree btw
@@Tougedrift Once in a while, I do peek in and leave a comment here, especially considering how long the sport has been a part of my life, haha. Usually when it relates to the Bundesliga or a German player in some shape or form (as a Werder Bremen fan, I really have been feeling that part of being priced out and then forced into risky gambles on the transfer market, as the early 10s have shown. I miss the years during which we got great players like Micoud for dirt cheap...).
Prices got out of hand because of private ownership. Billionaires and countries owning football clubs
@@colinodere7222 yeah. you get more and more clubs which just throw cash at problems, so everyone realizes they can demand more. Can just take a look at Chelsea under Boehly as a prime example and the prices they paid for players lol
@@segafreak2000When you said teams who gamble on transfers and end up falling away I immediately thought about Werder Bremen and in your next comment you say you are a Werder fan. Hope Werder can return where it belongs. Micoud,Diego,Ailton,Klose…just wow! Miss when “my” Bayern had Werder as they’re biggest rival and Thomas Schaaf on the bench. So many great memories come across.
Great video!
With everything you said, im very certain that ancelotti is the best manager nowadays. In many interviews he said he doesnt like to restrict his players, even when we talk about their personality. He always backs them up, and encourages them to be theirselfs, even if the whole spanish media is against them.
28:41 "Too much of anything can make you sick. Even the good can be a curse" - Cheryl Ann Tweed, Fight For This Love, 2008.
I started liking football in the early 00s, when there were still many types of players, like the classic playmakers, who didn't have to run much and could just create chances, it was much more about individuality. When I look at football today, it's extremely fast and the pitch is full of athletes, which is also pretty impressive on a different level, but everything is much more predictable due to extreme reliance on systems and flawlessly executed routines. For instance, there was a guy named Pavel Horvath in the Czech Republic who retired just 10 years ago, he was overweight and barely ran, so when he got to play the Champions League and Europa League for Viktoria Plzeň, the opposition would laugh at him for a minute, until he perfectly passed the ball across the pitch and his team would score (for instance, Viktoria won on aggregate 5:0 against Napoli in 2013 and this player was a huge reason for it, even though he looked almost like post-retirement Sneijder). These were the things that made you love the game more, also because it made you (as a kid) feel like you could maybe make it on the professional level. When I look at the game today, it feels like watching perfectly programmed machines with superhuman physical abilities and even as a naive kid, I wouldn't be able to dream about playing on this level, because it feels almost unreal.
Basically, flair has completely been coached out of the game by the likes of Arteta & Guardiola.
That Zidane take isn't too far off though, Zidane was a big game player. In Serie A, during the battle of the Trequartista(10), Baggio, Totti, and Rui Costa were a lot more consistent than Zidane when it came to producing magic week in week out. In Totti's case it was every week up until the injury. Which slowed him a tiny bit, and in Rui's case his love for Benfica which saved Benfica as a club itself. I have no doubt if Rui didn't ask to go to Benfica he would have been part Milan till 2007 if not longer and Benfica's current fortunes would be a lot different. He sacrificed part of his career for the love of his club.
It's the same with Riquelme with Villareal, week in week out
@@spacecamel2501 Riquelme is one of the best footballers to ever grace the planet, but English media will have people convinced they had better players lol
Great video! I agree especially with the calendar bit. The worst thing about it for me is the stupid amount of international breaks. Like getting a superstar player injured over a Spain v Georgia that nobody sees is so stupid. Other thing that I hate is the tendency of broadcasting a game like it was a movie. The amount of cameras makes it seem like you have to always be switching them. So the game is happening and the director of camera is glued to the reaction of a fan, or someone in the bench. It's so frustrating.
One thing that annoyed me (and this started around 2010-ish) was slo-mo close up facial reactions, especially England during the 🇿🇦 WC. I don’t wanna see every bearded scruff close up shouting something or looking stupid open mouthed dumbfounded all because “Add drama”
@@simontravers2715 I think the first question in the job interview for camera director at football broadcasting is "do you like football?" And if the answer is no you are hired. 🤣
2006 was so stacked. Costa Rica had Wanchope, Ecuador Antonio Valencia, Paraguay Roque Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago Dwight Yorke, Ivory Coast Drogba & Yaya, Iran Ali Daei, Mexico Rafa Márquez, Ghana Michael Essien, USA Howard & Dempsey, Croatia Modric, Japan Nakata, Korea Park Ji-sung, Togo Adebayor, Saudi Sami Al-Jaber and Ukraine had Shevchenko. In terms of pure star power and their legacy, on at least a national level, will never be repeated
The true star player of Trinidad & Tobago was Latapy, Ironically he hardly played in the world cup because we had to play boring football to survive. His style of play and age would have been a liability. The death of genius in the game.
@@ttvikingaming Russell Latapy is someone i only knew by name, so thanks for sharing
It is a very good question.
As a so called "lesser club" supporter, I am lucky that I won't fall into the fanboy trap when it comes to club players at international level. Although I will say even if he did leave in the Summer, James Ward-Prowse should be on that plane ahead of Henderson.
The only players I see in the current England set up that would get in to the Golden Generation are Bellingham and Kane. I don't see a John Terry or Steven Gerrard in this current crop.
That could be nostalgia talking - I'm 35 and I'm old before my time so it's possible - but when I think about it, managers like Guardiola and Klopp (English league bias to be sure) have very much made modern football about team tactics over individual brilliance.
It would explain why the flair players like Grealish and Barkley have at times struggled.
IMO the period between 07 and 15 was peak football simply because it wasn't either tactics-driven or individual brilliance, it was both. It should be both managers coaching players to efficiently do their job but also understand that those players are human beings...
Ward-Prowse should be in every England squad until he retires.
@@ricaard6959When Pep went full system mode it killed the need for specialist players. Even deadball specialist since he's always gonna favour the short pass. So 😴
@@ricaard6959this stuff makes me believe in the bibles end time prophecy 😂 the 07-15 era was so unbelievably blessed that we experienced the best before nwo comes in. See the super league prequel in the new champions league format.
Such an interesting point on highlights and the lack of full games we had access to then vs. now. I hadn't considered that.
Good vid, as usual. To add to the nostalgia section, I remember talk in the 90s about how much more robotic and athletic, and less creative, character-filled and fun football had become, compared to, say, the 60s and 70s...
The limited access to football is so true. I remember growing up supporting a neutral team but excited to watch united vs Depotivo on itv in the champsions league as you just didnt have access to the game
Football is growing in popularity rapidly ⚽️ ❤
In summary, Sports Analytics has made elite level football boring.
Same with the NBA, wonder which other sport.😂
That knowledge is out there though, nothing we can do about it now
Great video as always Alfie. Quick thing though, when you were talking about Saka at 20:18, you used a pic of Tariq Lamptey
Incredible video, thanks for making this. I think the quality has actually improved, as much as I hate to admit it, but much of the soul has left this beautiful game, and yes 2006 was around the tipping point, although I'd argue it wasn't for another 10-13 years or so up until after Leicester won the League or even Covid when the decline really began. Now, I find more joy in watching domestic cup competitions, especially the FA Cup and the US Open Cup, which unfortunately are starting to change for the worse due administrative purposes, and I still enjoy European Competition as well, notably the Conference League which gives smaller teams a chance to compete where they otherwise would not. I just don't really care for league play anymore.
This is so well written, absolutely agree with everything you covered! I think this is the age of Super coaches, not super players. Players are more or less like the coach's chess piece. As someone who started watching football in the 90s, I find myself almost having to re-learn how to enjoy football in recent years. But nowadays I can appreciate the tatical chess game a lot more. And I think if we transport some of the modern players back to the 90s or 00s, they'll be able to impress a lot more on a individual level.
I feel like it’s the era of billionaires rather than coaches
People got realize these systemic approaches these mangers are taking are just more effective to win games instead of the constant unnecessary flair football some players play without being effective while playing that style.
This. Modern football requires that all players fullfill their role in the system at all times, or your team will lose because of your mistakes. Everyone is good at transitions, so ironing out mistakes is so, so important.
This is the best video you have made so far. Loved it!
You put into words what I've never been able to verbalize. Players used to feel like mythical beings that only existed on the pitch. Occasionally, you'd see a glimpse of their personality from them in a commercial and it amazing. The Zidane - De Bruyne comparison is great.
There's a lot of recency bias, but there's also nostalgia bias that plays a part. Sure the 2000s had R9, Zidane, Prime AC Milan, Man United and Real Madrid, but the Man City, Liverpool and Real Madrid of today are also on that level. De Bruyne, Modric, Salah and Kroos have been on similar levels to greats of the past. People were complaining about the same thing in 2006 comparing it to the days of Maradona and teams of the past.
The thing is that quality was more spread around back in those days. Now you just have Man City, PSG, Bayern and Madrid, even Barcelona isn't that good. Before you Henry in Arsenal, Zidane in Madrid, Ronaldinho in Barcelona etc.
Sure recency bias exists but I don't remember a single person in the 90's or 2000's saying football had got worse. Not one person. Boxing in the 90's.... No one said it was better in the 1950's. Plus isn't it ironic that most of the modern players you named struggled early in the their careers when they weren't being picked over past greats. Even Modric played nearly 300 games before he even got to Madrid and became the player we love today. Kroo's has been a boss from the very beginning.
I mean, Modric and De Bruyne are great but when they are the best players of your generation yes the level has decreased... athletically and tactically it is better and because of that there's less space and time to think so there is less time to show or even invest in your individual quality. Saka is the prime example of that... the modern player, a good technically and athletic winger but with no magic to him in my opinion. Not that I wouldn't love to have him on my team, I would coz he does everything by the manual, protects the ball and all but really for his abilities there's a lack of magic, of taking people on or taking risks. Coz today you are not alloewed to lose the ball 5 or more times so one would only attack in a very favorable situation, otherwise just pass it back. I mean, Salah in my opinion is a bit worse than Figo and no one was claiming he Figo was the best of his generation even if he won a Ballon' dor (don't care much about the award). Across the entire world teams rarely if ever had 80% of the points in a season, a 90 point league season was an absolute gem, nowadays it is necessary to win the league and that's basically because the mid and botton table teams have gotten so much worse, talent is concentrated in fewer squads where their bench players would be starting for the 10th team in the league 20 years ago
It's true that every generation has their share of nostalgia. But there is a small point to be made about football getting worse.
Think of the champions league line up of teams in say between 2000 and 2006. Each team had a rich stock of technically gifted players. As someone pointed out above, the talents were spread out.
Today it's concentrated in small teams. Today there is no Man Utd player that can be nominated as the player of the season. No AC milan or Barça player can contend for European player of the year.
Gone, it seems, are the days when a Champions League night featured Nedved, Shevchenko, Pirlo, Kaka Trezeguet, Figo, Zidane, Zanetti, Samuel, Maldini, Raul, Henry, Nistelroy, Lampard, Gerrard, Cannavaro, Campbell, Pires, Cole, Ronaldinho, Deco, Seedorf, Makalele, Gattuso,Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Cafu, Nesta, Carlos, Ballack, Rui Costa, etc.
Maybe because we watch more games now and watch more clips. But there seemed to be an aura around those people back then that we don't have now.
Quality was more spread around in the 2000s...even "lesser" teams had surprisingly skilled stars like DiNatale. The game back then was much more direct so there were naturally more changes in possession even when the other team was defending for dear life.
My issue with modern football is more and more team try to play the same way, possession, attacking, pressing. It is a great style that all the successful teams use, but 20 years ago there actually was a variety of styles and philosophies.
National and club teams played with distinct identities and personalities. Like how Mourinho’s tactics contrasted sharply with Wenger; SAF and Ancelotti are both man-manager, but one is strict while the other is chill.
Nowadays everyone is drilled in the same way on the field, also all the PR and social media concerns kind of neutered the individual personalities, when are we going to get another Vieira vs. Keane style of clash of strong leaders?
For a long time I also have been thinking that 2006 WC was the peak of football in my lifetime but I never actually wondered why. This video sums it up pretty nicely.
A new Alfie upload immediately makes my day
33:14 the irony of this video ending becoz Man City vs Arsenal is about start, but it actually fits the ending of the video
EDIT: Wait, today is April 1st?! Goddammit Alfie!!!
I don't think it's the footballers and the actual sport itself that has gotten worse. If anything, the beautiful game is still well.......beautiful. And recent competitions proved that. What got worse is the stuff that happens OFF the field. Everything from the fans to the FIFA governing body to countries trying to use the game to "sportswash" and worst of all, money money MONEY!!!
I think everyone is just getting more cynical now because all these stuff feels more on the nose lately and it can suck the fun out of enjoying the sport.
"People bringing in politics" eh?
Just to remind you, people's existence (and persecution for existing) isn't politics- it's something that has been *politicised* for the sake of attempting to suppress the fact. ;)
Bringing in politics into football has happened for as long as you can think though, lol. It's not a recent thing at all. Why do you think one of the very first world cups went to Italy, for example? Or why Argentina or Spain were allowed to hold one despite dictatorship circumstances in both of these countries at the time (though by the time it happened in Spain, that one had fallen already, more that there was one when they were picked).
@@alexisauld7781 Not THAT kind of "politics". I'm talking about local and global governance, that kind of politics. What you're talking about is common human decency, which I think shouldn't even need to be debated about whether people of different backgrounds should be allowed to be left alone and be comfortable with who they are.
I'm talking about politics like how Saudi is trying to "sports wash" it's contentious history by hosting the World Cup and pretending to be a fully civilized nation.
@@segafreak2000 I know, that's why I made the point its more on the nose nowadays. Like Saudi hosting an upcoming World Cup.
@alexisauld7781 just to remind you that social issues have always been political in nature
Alfie, your videos are just perfect . I love how u cover all possible perspectives and don’t try to push any agendas and give very detailed and balanced view . As a Indian the only thing I dislike is the occasional cricket slander 😅. ( the variability of the pitch and types of bowling and skills make it not repetitive, but I get the broad stroke of your opinion ). Absolutely love your vids ❤.
Footballers haven’t become worse, football has.
Football as entertainment
Short answer. Yes. Pep Guardiola ruined football. There are no shot stoppers, no-nonsense defenders or actual forwards now. There are just athletes who know to pass the ball till the end of eternity on both ends of the pitch in every team.
Absolute 100% facts. The sport has become too mechanical and has kicked out naturalness & soul in the name of stats, probability, and mechanisms.
If this football today was the football we grew up watching, we’d have never fallen in love with the sport.
Sums up modern football perfectly. It's a borefest.
Ye but when players don't play like fucking robots people complain bcuz football fans forget its a fucking game its meant to be entertaining at the end if the day winning shouldn't matter (to a certain extent)
Pep 😂😂 no way mate, Pep had 12 years or so without a UCL. It is literally impossible to ruin football as a single manager.
spot on. great video and very concise
Had a question one could ask in one of your Q&A videos, but what are the main factors behind you choosing to do videos about specific topics? Sure, you do the most important most discussed topics, but then there’s also videos on things like the Lithuanian national stadium, the Bulgarian FA corruption and Widzew Łódź. Do you tend to go for topics attracting the most views, or do you find sometimes documenting the niche topics is a better way of building an audience? Makes me think of how the TV channels always broadcast the boring but more lucrative FA Cup ties involving Man United, when there’s so much wasted potential in terms of building an FA Cup audience by not broadcasting ties which are actually interesting.
Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 619)
I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored.
If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.
We believe in you
Bouyaka Bouyaka! 619!
We believe in you
Yes! Still going strong!
Uwe Rosler?
It's a lot like food - it used to be a little more "natural". Now, it's ultraprocessed.
And gaming, dating, the economy, globalisation etc.
People are sick of this new world and rightfully want tradition back.
When I was a kid in the 90's/ 00's I absolutely loved football. There were so many characters and such a wide range of top footballers with unique play styles/ identities. However now when I watch football it just seems bloated, over analysed, over thought and boring quite frankly. To me most modern footballers are just clones of each other and everything is so tactically efficient its actually taken some of the chaos and soul out of the game. I've always felt for a while and said to a people a few times that my generation had the best time for football.
Love the video - as always; however, I have to say that I don't think the quality has gone downhill - I genuinely think footballs got worse because tribalism has become so toxic, hypocrisy/outright lies has become so widespread in the media and amongst fans it'd be almost comical to watch if it wasn't so saddening, and there are certain team's fanbases that make being a fan such a chore and so miserable that i'd rather just not talk about football with people anymore
Maybe I'm old and 30 now but I remember every player from a 2008-09 game between Chelsea and Liverpool but now I have no idea who plays for Milan or Barcelona in UCL playoffs other than a couple big names.
Because you are old and you no longer watch football anymore
Football is the best and the most entertaining sport in the world ⚽️ ❤
Football is growing in popularity rapidly ⚽️ ❤
I used to watch teams I didn't follow because of how good the players were 20 years ago. Nowadays I'm not even bothered with the Champions League final. Sure it may be nostalgia, but it's mainly because of how average the players have become. I'm talking about forwards who could shoot better, DMs who could hold the ball, attacking midfielders who could pass, central defenders who were crazy consistent and wingbacks who could pass. The current generation is crazy inconsistent. Early 2000s were a special generation and acknowledging that doesn't make you all nostalgic. Look at how rare it is nowadays for teams to fight over a player and fans to wish they played for their team instead
Facts. The nostalgia argument is dismissive.
My god… being born in 1997 this World Cup was my first World Cup. So much good memories. Especially the Final ⚽️❤️
😊
Russia 2018 was better, Brazil 2014 was so much better
Qatar was poop
qatar had the best group stage and knockout games .Its not even a debate@@uriustosh
For sure, your first world cup is always the best! Espana 82 for me 😂❤
@@uriustosh ehhhh Everyone has their opinions. 2006 Germany was probably the more entertaining to watch due to level of players that were competing at the time. A lot of legends played their last World Cup in 2006.
Nah! I think u are the one who has been pooping alot since Dec the 18th event in Qatar.I can easily tell a salty mourner almost 2 yrs on lol! Cope son,we feel ur pain.
Part of it is that in 2006 many of the named stars in the intro were young stars and promises that actually lived up to their hype/expectations. In the following world cups there has been promising players who didn’t fully live up to their hype in their career such has James Rodriguez in the 2014 WC
Right. You never see young stars really making it anymore. It’s always a player who was in the shadows till he was 21-23 years old who comes onto the scene and is now the best.
@@FullyOnVolksMbappe, Bellingham, Wirtz, etc. The problem is you don't know which young players will succeed until they already have. There are good young players now who might fizzle out, and others who will live up to expectations, but we don't know who yet.
in one example - the AFC Bournemouth v Yeovil Town derby ( which was never considered a derby by many because of 65 years of regional tv coverage splitting the 38 miles between the towns ), in the case of the former ,football has become much better when compared to just over a decade ago when either of these clubs could come out on top after a league meeting usually in the 3rd or 4th tier.
Thankfully Glovers are on the up once more .
& Thanks for your work ALPHIE & hey I watched a recent Norwich City v Ipswich Town televised game where the Commentator literally described exactly what was happening on the pitch touch by touch & naming each contributer as it happened - without a single mention of the system , the managers’ employment prospects or any result of the big six from the previous night. I was flabbergasted & it was fabulous !
Definitely priority is physical work not technical skill.
Bloody hell I never though back how many ballers 2006 World Cup had.
18:13 Gheorghe Hagi :D Legend this channel gets better and better.
29:50 Morten Gamst Pedersen at Blackburn, Bolton was amazing to watch back then and the magic of Arsenal vs the more aggressive Manutd.
The really spectacular aspects of the game are becoming more and more rare as every team prioritises possession football and maximising xG.
P.S. xG being a statistic that people care about is the worst thing to ever happen to football
Why? No way a stat is the worst thing to ever happen to football.
@@user-fd3hd3yy3x the stat - no
The obsession over it - absolutely yes.
Quote by Bill Russell: “The only important statistic is the final score.”
@@user-fd3hd3yy3x I didn't say the stat was the problem, I said the obsession over it was.
Just look at the ridiculous nonsense Poch said last week that Chelsea should be 4th because of the statistics. They are 4th on xG but every other stat has them at mid table or worse, it's weapons grade nonsense.
To quote Bill Russell: “The only important statistic is the final score.”
@@jbbresers Thats just a coach being delusional.
Can't talk if it's boring now, but for me there are 2 things that killed in the last about 10 years. It's all that media and matches every 2-3 days, that just feed you up and at 1 moment it just gets boring. And(specifically for me, don't now how the others feel on that topic) all those cheatings killed it. Both on and off the pitch. You have teams like City or PSG who can by players for 200 M or have multiple charges on them, but they are not guilty. Meanwhile some 2-3th tear team gets relegated, fined and some other problems just because they dared to by a player for about 5, when their FFP doesn't allow it. And not to mention all those divings and fake penalties last 10 years or so. It got to such a point that most of the times I get angry even at my team, when I see them cheat or try to get fake penalty or red card for other player.
At least for me those things ruined football and I even stopped watching it last years. Started with it in the late 90-es, continued during the '00-es and somewhere around 2010 I got fed up and a little by little I stopped watching it. Haven't watch any full match since maybe 2017/8 somewhere, I just look at highlights or read some info in football sites(and memes sometimes). That is all I know for current football, even Euros and WC aren't interesting for me anymore. And everytime it gets even worse with more and more scandals or divings.
Great vid.
Peps killed footbal.
Also 20:17 = not Saka
I would hire this man for my thesis. Damn you know how to frame and make a balanced argument.
One thing I can be thankful for is ill never forget seeing Ronaldinho in that Barca/Brazil as a young kid and being mesmorized, Ronaldo in that United shirt and Drogba in that Chelsea shirt. Classic Prem was peak.
As an American, the rigid specialization and systems in association football remind me a bit of how analytics have hurt baseball, in particular pitching. It used to be that you would see pitchers save their energy so they could pitch the whole game, the batter could put the ball in play and you'd see if the fielders could get him out. Now with more analytics and specialization in baseball, the fielders are only in the game to hit when their team is on offense and it is up to the pitcher to give maximum effort all of the time and strike everybody out. This means the ball isn't in play as much and managers are substituting pitchers out a few times a game which takes a few minutes each time that happens. This leads to most sports fans feeling that baseball is boring even though like with Pep Guardiola's managing this is how the game has evolved to produce more winning.
Real football ⚽️ is the best and the most entertaining sport in the world ⚽️ ❤
Real football ⚽️ is growing in popularity rapidly ⚽️ ❤
How much I would give to watch 2006 football again.
The old school approach is returning with some coaches like Inzaghi and Thiago Motta. They play a beautiful brand of football. I spend my entire Saturdays watching football from all leagues, but I've never found myself watching City under Pep out of my own free will if it's not a Champions League KO tie.
In Portugal there was lot of talks about our youth academies lately turning players into robots and losing the creativity (street soccer like) our players used to have and it seems they been changing it a bit to allow more creativity again and make winning at young age less important than developing the player.
i believe the 2006 world cup is a special moment in time, where the previous generation is not passed their best, along with the emergence of an extremely talented young players who have already established themselves all the the same world cup, im sure 1/5 1/6 world cups is something like this, truly magic, but the 2002 world cup was still better
That header was the last thing Zidane ever did as a pro footballer. In the World Cup final.
In my opinion, the years after 2000 were the worst for football. In the 90ies there was a looot more dribbling and a whole lot more technical players. Look at say the German squad. In the 90ies they've had Moeller, Sammer (one of the best dribbling defenders), Basler, etc. While in 2002 their most gifted player was Bernd Schneider. The 60ies, 70ies, and 80ies were even better. 2006 and 2010 were two of the bottom three World cups in terms of average goals per game. The quality of those goals was also worse. Even though the players were less violent than before (with the exception of the Dutch) and the pitches were way better than in the 90ies.
Today the football is also more technical and fun to watch. Expect the club football is more boring, but that's because the same clubs are champions every year, not because of the game. There are more goals today than 20 years ago, too. Sure, the tactics are also more important, because of the improved fitness of the players, but the footballers are just better and more fun to watch today.
I've been watching football since 1994 and have watched many games from the earlier times. Football was very fun until around 2000. Today it's still OK (not as good as it used to be, but this is not because of the players), but between 2000 and 2010 it sucked big time.
If you want a sport that got much worse in the past 20 years, go watch tennis. Sure, the players are better, but the game is extremely boring today. The different surfaces are no longer different. 99% of the points are decided by the serve. As a result, all the players train the same and play in the same way. Whenever someone more interesting to watch comes up, like Grigor Dimitrov, they don't succeed.
If tennis fans are nostalgic I would understand that. If older football fans are nostalgic and want the football of the 60ies, 70ies, 80ies or 90ies I would understand that, too. But people from Alfie's generation who say that football got worse, that I don't accept. Football got better, and footballers got better in the last 20 years. Big time.
How is footballers are more fun to watch today? 🤣🤣🤣 they are all robots.
@@harukrentz435 No, there were robots 20 years ago. Nobody would try anything like a dribble, or remotely interesting.
Again, look at people like Bernd Schneider, who were hailed as very technical. He never ever tried anything interesting. Any player today plays with more improvisation. Even Mats Hummels runs more with the ball.
Football today, or in any age, is a million times more beautiful than what it was 20 years ago.
The creativity leaving the Sport is so sad.
Football used to be a work of art. Now it's a work of a system.
I went to see Espanyol vs Atletico Madrid at the now StageFront Stadium and fell in love with football all over again, what a game.
this video has absolutely blown my little brain, you’re absolutely right alfie
I was 12 during the 2006 World Cup. It was great
I think, Messi and Ronaldo set the bar too high by dominating. That’s why people don’t see as many stars in future world cups compared to 2006 World Cup.
Very good point
Easy comparison to show between starting strikers in some teams in 2006 and in 2024 (the difference is INSANE)
Arsenal : Henry/Havertz (or Jesus)
Chelsea : Drogba/Jackson
Liverpool : Crouch/Nunez (maybe an improvement)
United : Van Nistelrooy/Hojlund
Real Madrid : Ronaldo/? (no real striker outside of Joselu)
Barcelone : Eto'o/35yo Lewandowski
Atlético : Torres/Morata
Milan : Shevchenko/37yo Giroud
Inter : Adriano/Martinez
Juventus : Ibrahimovic or Trezeguet/Vlahovic
Bayern : Makaay/Kane (improvement)
Pep guardiola is the sole reason i despise modern football systems, and your jack graelish example is perfect.
Hmm.... I'm not sure whether it has, really. Could just be generational nostalgia. There will have been many people even in and around 2006 that will have moaned about the decline of football compared to when they loved it, 20 or so years before that, and we'll probably look back on these times and say they were still fun haha
That is of course true, the same discussion is being held about Formula 1 for ages. When I was watching it in the late 90s and early 00s, I remember older people calling it boring and nothing like the sport in the ages of Lauda or Senna/Prost rivalry, even though today many people complain how it will never be as exciting as in the V8 era and the seasons when Schumacher was facing Hakkinen in the title struggle.
Back to football though - even in the 00s, there was already "too much money" in the sport in comparison with the 70s or 80s, when Maradona was the most expensive player for just 1 million pounds. It was already much more "perfect" and predictable, there wouldn't be a team like Steaua or Crvena Zvezda winning any European trophy just like in the 80s. But from today's view, football in the 00s was still pretty much about individual choices, flair and consequential randomnes and footballers were mostly still footballers and not super-athletes. These are factors that can be proved by pure data and not just by nostalgia of those who remember.
But these things are just a natural evolution, the success of mankind is based on the endless improvement and always finding the most efficient ways, so it's completely inevitable and the most we can do is remembering certain parts and phases of this development as fondly as possible.
True true, I'm watching Leicester and Norwich right now and the exciting nature of this game and in particular, the football league, is still enthralling to watch as it's ever been in all time I've been watching the game, particularly at this stage of the season. So, even though players individual personalities don't stand out as much as they (generally) maybe used to, the game itself and the structure of it, can be still just as exciting today. You've only got to look at the results in the latest round of the cup, two brilliant afternoons in a row. Have faith people! 😅
A masterpiece of football commentary
This brings a recent Thiago Silva quote to my mind, which got a lot of backlash. He said that in early 2010s(before the pep era), the prem did not appeal to him from a pure footballing perspective. That has completely changed since then, evidently.
I have no football memory before the 2002 world cup and even at that I only really started following football from the 2006 world cup, so I don't know what football was like. I can't judge based on highlights alone. When I've seen a few full games from the time before it actually was just the same as now.
skill-wise it improved by worlds, but it's gotten worse for viewers
Video idea: ranking the quality of England squads to have been named for each euros - so many golden generations I’m not sure what one to believe
English teams are always overrated.
@@user-fd3hd3yy3x How original
29:10 I was almost certain you were going to play the David Mitchell "Watch the Football" sketch.
With the whole science behind football getting much more refined, people are subconsciously choosing the more direct and tactical approach to games than anything else. The teams are much more organized, the players are faster and more durable with proper trainning, diets and gear, but on its counterpart, the "true" skill that was born from the lack of all support, the skill that came from the individual, based on pure creativity is getting short handed. "Football" as the previous generations have known isn't dying, there are still lots of icons that replicate that nostalgic feeling. But it surely is not so present as before.
Think I’m just growing out of football now that my generation, the Messi/Ronaldo generation is ending.
It’s deeper than that the Messi cr7 era is ending. The sport is changing for the worse
Yes especially if your a england or chelsea fan but all jokes aside its tough to watch as a neutral I think it's covid that changed our outlook.
I think a couple of people here said it too - the game got too stratified as a team effort and does not give a lot of space for special players to shine as it did in the past. Which is not too much fun to watch. I mostly blame 2008-2012 era Spain for this and all people who think they should emulate that team
Definitely not only nostalgia. I see a lot of similarities between football and poker in that sense. When i started following the latter in the early 2000s, the game was full of colorful characters and you had the "online kids" with their creative bluffing ways. With the rise of sharing of information online the game has now basically been solved. Elite players no longer think in ways like "does he have it or not?" but play game theory optimal. No table chatter, just a bunch of robots sitting dead still not to give away any body languge. When some sports and games are perfected they simply, for many, lose some of their entertainment value from a poetic/romantic point of view. But miles better, no question