Evolution of Football

Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
It's not a bad idea to have a thread discussing the changes in the sport the last 15+ years.

I came across this great vid by the astute analyst Football Meta, explaining how a single tactical tweak by Mourinho back in 2004 changed football in England forever:


Many here are frequently complaining about the drop in individual quality since the late 90s early 00s, but at the same time they don't realize that the drop was the result of the fact that games stopped being decided mainly by individual quality, but by the tactical astuteness of the manager.

And that really progressed the sport...
The football we have seen the last 15 (at least) years has nothing to do with the one before, which looks now like the stone age of football
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
Yeah it's automation.

Stick on the LaLiga promises and you will see how super drilled academies like Villarreal can not take advantage of space left open in front of them, because they are drilled not to do anything outside of their system.

The tactical improvements in football has its benefits, but also drawbacks.

Atleast at Barca we have been blessed with Lamine and to an extent Pedri, and with Flick who allows them the freedom to express themselves.
 
G

Gnidrologist

Senior Member
Yeah, current Barca is much more free flowing and easy to the eye than any of the current pep-style squads, especially in EPL, because it gives players more room to improvise, while still keeping distinct tactical style. And flick does it even with B team players. It's kinda oldschool, which is why it's more vulnerable defensively.
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Birdy said:
Many here are frequently complaining about the drop in individual quality since the late 90s early 00s, but at the same time they don't realize that the drop was the result of the fact that games stopped being decided mainly by individual quality, but by the tactical astuteness of the manager.
Click to expand...
That is very true and people realise that I think - I certainly do. However, people just want more balance. In the past it was too much about individual quality - now there's not enough individual quality or thinking outside the box and everything is micromanaged.

For me, both extremes are a problem. The former doesn't have enough tactical sophistication, while the latter supresses most individual freedom. I acknowledge that it is very very difficult to find a satisfying middle ground - in fact I would say it's impossible.
 
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FinBarcelonafan

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
Porque said:
Yeah it's automation.

Stick on the LaLiga promises and you will see how super drilled academies like Villarreal can not take advantage of space left open in front of them, because they are drilled not to do anything outside of their system.

The tactical improvements in football has its benefits, but also drawbacks.

Atleast at Barca we have been blessed with Lamine and to an extent Pedri, and with Flick who allows them the freedom to express themselves.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. I'll just quote here AI, but I think this was in some Messi article:

Screenshot_20251008-035050.png
 
T

ToranagaSama

Active member
From my memory:

90s and beginning of 00s EPL was wild west. 4-4-2 with 2 central midfielders playing long balls to the wide wingers and the touchline hugging wide wingers putting crosses in to strikers. That's when Beckham was the face of football. He was the best at playing long crosses.

Then came Wenger with emphasis on technical players and a more passing oriented game but nowhere near as drilled as Barca later and he enjoyed some success with it around 2000. Also struck gold with prime Henry.

Mourinho then took a big dump on that with 11 big physical players executing Italian Catenaccio 11 men behind the ball pounce on opponent's mistake anti-football.

Pep's Barca took passing to the next level, Mourinho again tried to take a dump on that with hardcore Catenaccio and partly succeeded again with Inter most noteably but simultaniously got caught by surprise once we entered the who outpresses who "pressing / gegenpressing" fast transition Klopp, Heynckes, Flick German-influenced era. Klopp's Dortmund wrecked Mourinho after which he never recovered to this day and teams like Klopp's Liverpool and Flick's Bayern dominated.

Madrid also dominated on paper but that was mostly down to some Voodoo shit. They never had any recognizable style in the past 15 years and won CL finals thanks to goalkeeping miracles and 2 shots on target. Ancelotti's success was always a mystery to me.

I don't know in which era we're in right now. Individual quality seems to be at all-time low. Démbéle Ballon d'Or winner is a joke to me. This Barca also doesn't have that much quality. Yamal yes, maybe Pedri also (though he wouldn't even make the bench for Spain around 2010 I guess) and Raphinha showed world class form last season but overall the rest is nothing to write home about. And yet we can be considered a top 3 team in the world. Strange.
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
ToranagaSama said:
From my memory:

90s and beginning of 00s EPL was wild west. 4-4-2 with 2 central midfielders playing long balls to the wide wingers and the touchline hugging wide wingers putting crosses in to strikers. That's when Beckham was the face of football. He was the best at playing long crosses.

Then came Wenger with emphasis on technical players and a more passing oriented game but nowhere near as drilled as Barca later and he enjoyed some success with it around 2000. Also struck gold with prime Henry.

Mourinho then took a big dump on that with 11 big physical players executing Italian Catenaccio 11 men behind the ball pounce on opponent's mistake anti-football.

Pep's Barca took passing to the next level, Mourinho again tried to take a dump on that with hardcore Catenaccio and partly succeeded again with Inter most noteably but simultaniously got caught by surprise once we entered the who outpresses who "pressing / gegenpressing" fast transition Klopp, Heynckes, Flick German-influenced era. Klopp's Dortmund wrecked Mourinho after which he never recovered to this day and teams like Klopp's Liverpool and Flick's Bayern dominated.

Madrid also dominated on paper but that was mostly down to some Voodoo shit. They never had any recognizable style in the past 15 years and won CL finals thanks to goalkeeping miracles and 2 shots on target. Ancelotti's success was always a mystery to me.

I don't know in which era we're in right now. Individual quality seems to be at all-time low. Démbéle Ballon d'Or winner is a joke to me. This Barca also doesn't have that much quality. Yamal yes, maybe Pedri also (though he wouldn't even make the bench for Spain around 2010 I guess) and Raphinha showed world class form last season but overall the rest is nothing to write home about. And yet we can be considered a top 3 team in the world. Strange.
Click to expand...
That pretty much sums up the 90s onwards in a very concise way.

I would disagree with a few things, think you're harsh on Pedri (though I agree he and Yamal are Barca's only two special players).

But yes, 90s football in England was very very basic in tactical thought. Wenger helped it along a bit, then Mourinho became more defensive (though he must be credited with at long last introducing the anchorman in English football through Makelele; before then they were obsessed with box to box players, though their most successful teams had good midfielders who knew when to hold before, like Souness).

But overall I would say that is a decent summation of football since the 90s, especially in England. I think Real Madrid were more like a better version of Ferguson's basic counter attack style - stay in the game and devastate in the final third with pace, crosses and headers - into Ronaldo.
 
TheStig

TheStig

Member
Football was on a upward trajectory from 80s (or earlier), reached it's peak in 2010s and is now on a steep decline since the end of Messi/CR7 era.
 
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