Thierry Henry

[Joan]

You know what the modern gen will say to the recent comments here.

'Everything gets better over time, footballers now are way better than in the 80s, 90s and 00s'. An extremely naive statement, as football isn't like athletics and just about measurable speed or height or power over time. No, in football, a technical genius can be born in the 40s and a donkey can be born in the 00s. Bolt is undoubtedly faster than Jesse Owens, but Mbappe isn't undoubtedly better at football than Pele (quite the opposite). Touch and vision and football intelligence aren't linear things that automatically improve over time and with better sports science and better medicine - unlike speed and power which are athletic and not about genius.

Take into account that the game is much more about athleticism now, and that the sport will naturally attract more athletic but less talented actual FOOTBALLERS, and that Gen Z statement looks clueless.

Are we looking at football as a sport or as entertainment?

From a purely sporting perspective, there’s no question any top team today would comfortably beat the best teams from the 80s or 90s, let alone earlier decades. Advances in athleticism, tactics, and training have made the modern game far more efficient and physically demanding.

But if we’re talking about football as entertainment, I’d agree. In that sense, we’ve probably passed the peak. The game may be more optimized today, but the spontaneity and flair feel lost. However, that doesn’t mean teams don’t play better football today.

Individual players aside, don’t really care about rankings and all that jazz.

 

[Maradona37]

Are we looking at football as a sport or as entertainment?

From a purely sporting perspective, there’s no question any top team today would comfortably beat the best teams from the 80s or 90s, let alone earlier decades. Advances in athleticism, tactics, and training have made the modern game far more efficient and physically demanding.

But if we’re talking about football as entertainment, I’d agree. In that sense, we’ve probably passed the peak. The game may be more optimized today, but the spontaneity and flair feel lost. However, that doesn’t mean teams don’t play better football today.

Individual players aside, don’t really care about rankings and all that jazz.

Yeah I agree, superior fitness means the old teams would lose. But they're not inferior in talent, quite the opposite.

If we transported those teams to modern day and trained them up to modern standards, the fitness and medical advantage would be eliminated.

I'm talking about the talent of individual players, what you call entertainment. Not the fitness advantage of overall teams.

I know you are meaning much further back, but do you think today's Barca beats pep Barca?

 

[Joan]

Yeah I agree, superior fitness means the old teams would lose. But they're not inferior in talent, quite the opposite.

If we transported those teams to modern day and trained them up to modern standards, the fitness and medical advantage would be eliminated.

I'm talking about the talent of individual players, what you call entertainment. Not the fitness advantage of overall teams.

Not just a matter of fitness, modern teams hold an advantage because they’re simply better at playing the game of football.

Talent levels across generations are relatively stable, with minor fluctuations. If you were to take a legendary team from the past, bring them into the present, and train them according to today’s standards, they’d resemble a strong top tier side of today. Some might still stand out, but they would be similar in style.

The difference isn’t in the raw talent, footballing geniuses haven’t disappeared. In today’s game it’s far harder to be a genius. That’s how I see it.

 

[Maradona37]

Not just a matter of fitness, modern teams hold an advantage because they’re simply better at playing the game of football.

Talent levels across generations are relatively stable, with minor fluctuations. If you were to take a legendary team from the past, bring them into the present, and train them according to today’s standards, they’d resemble a strong top tier side of today. Some might still stand out, but they would be similar in style.

The difference isn’t in the raw talent, footballing geniuses haven’t disappeared. In today’s game it’s far harder to be a genius. That’s how I see it.

You might be right. But I just dont think Messi aside, and yamal toi, theres any potential all time greats. But guess it's same in most generations

I think what you mean is the average or good player is better than the average or good player of the past. So it was easier for world class players to look supernatural in the past. Which is fair enough.

On the other hand, the gap between the richer and poorer teams is bigger, player distribution isnt as wide except in epl, and top teams hoard top players .as well as that goal scoring has exploded these days compared to 80s and 90s So you could realistically argue that guys like R9 and van basten would score much more now than in defensive 90s serie a. And that lewy Ronaldo and Messi would score less in a more defensive era

That player hoarding backs your point that the top teams now would compete well against top teams of the past

Id say there's more good players now than in the past. But they're less widely distributed.

 

[Maradona37]

I think there's more strong teams now in that there's about 10 elite teams in Europe. But also more weak teams (relative to the elite teams) and teams that get hammered.. This is due to the narrow player distribution.

That's probably why so many people are obsessed with the so called 'big games'. Because even mid-table teams are generally fodder for your top teams in top leagues and so beating them doesn't gather much credit from modern fans.

The gap between the best and the rest is bigger than ever. But we can argue if that is because the best are better than the past's best, or if the rest are now worse than in the past (speaking relatively to the best in their era). Maybe a bit of both.