Has Player Quality Declined?

M

Marshall D Teach

Well-known member
I really feel that the quality of players has declined massively in the past 10 or so years.

It just feels like if you go back to 2014 and look at the guys that were playing, you'd see talent everywhere. The sport was overflowing with it. Now there's... Haaland and Mbappe and that's kind of it. And they're players whom I honestly think would have had a hard time being considered top 15 in 2014, even if you take Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar (who were very obviously miles and miles ahead of anyone playing today) out of the equation.

I like to meme about it a lot but I'm genuinely curious to hear everyone else's thoughts on this.
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Messi and Ronaldo are historical outliers, those two are two of the most gifted players football has ever seen while being 2 of the luckiest who hit the perfect storm for development, rivalry, coaches, career path, teammates, and timing (the popped at the start of social media era).

If you remove them, you get the Lewa, Benzema, Neymar, Hazard, Salah, Griezmann,Modric, older Iniesta, Suarez, Bale of the world, that list is similar to the preview eras of the Figo, Ronaldinho, Beckham, Ronald Nazario, Nedved and so on.
Now is a bit of transition, but it is also the era of tactical discipline, the truth is coaches are now the biggest factors especially in the league, Pep is a cheat code for example. With him you need a Messi to feel the beauty of generational talent, but that is obviously stacked. There are plenty of good/great players atm, and many will develop into stardom. The overall quality is better but the entertainment factor and allowing the individual brilliance to show will decline.
That in itself is an issue, because football is an entertaining industry.
 
DonAK

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Young players are being coached out of their flair due to managers following Pep and obsessing about control and following the same repetitive patterns.

Probably a talent decline too. We have a lot of players that are jack of all trades, master of none type of guys too with all these wannabe strikers for example.

It's why players like Yamal, Musiala, Wirtz are a joy to watch because they can be effective and entertaining/play with flair. Hopefully Pedri can regain some of that magic too. Seem to have lost it in the way with all the injuries and other issues.
 
Messigician

Messigician

Senior Member
No of course not

I’ll let Riquelme explain the problem

🗣️ Juan Román Riquelme: "I think we lived differently in the era when we played: we loved playing football. We weren't very interested in playing PlayStation, we didn't have social media, we weren't interested in showing that we were walking the dog, we weren't interested in showing if we danced after a game."

"Now I'm surprised when they post: 'I'm going to take a nap.' And then they post: 'I just woke up from my nap, now I'm having a snack.' What is this? Nobody posts anything about football. They never post about a Champions League match. Instead, they post a photo with the hairdresser the day before the game."

"Everything is new. Thankfully, I lived in the previous era. I felt the obligation to watch the Champions League because I wanted to know all the football players. And I believed that by watching, I could learn every day. And I still watch, even though I no longer play. Now, there are so many new things that I don't know if I could handle."
 
Messi983

Messi983

Senior Member
I wouldn't say players quality has declined that much but entertainment level certainly has, at least in my eyes. Nowadays I just watch games for the sake of it and because I'm used to but there are rare times I enjoy them like in the past. I can barely stay focused for full 90 minutes and often do other things while TV/streams are in the background.

Maybe that has to do with Barca decline over last 10 years (but Barca games are still the ones I watch in full length) or I'm just getting older but just don't feel the same anymore. Always found international football boring (and with terrorists like Southgate and Deschamps leading teams with most individual talent these days that's even more obvious) and CL is as well these days with Madrid winning it every other year.

At least there are still teams like Atalanta and Bayer this year.

As much as I enjoyed his time here I think control freaks like Pep (and other coaches trying to replicate what he does) have turned players into robots. Not many are allowed freedom to showcase their talent.

What JRR said also stands, lot of players are more focused on their image on and off the pitch than actual performances.

That's why I'm enjoying women's football. Besides Barca having a great team that is a joy to watch I just find it more natural, players are giving their best while being paid peanuts compared to mostly overpaid divas in men's football and fans are showing up to actually support the team and enjoy the game rather than having a bunch of tourists doing selfies in the stands.
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Many players are automatons. Players are now obsessively coached within an inch of their lives, and there's less encouragement to take risks. Every team now tries to play like Pep's Barca (with varying degrees of success and some stylistic tweaks). The general trend of high pressing, keeper playing out from the back, condensing the pitch, using width to find cut backs, less interest in individual quality or doing something off the cuff.

As someone born in 1982 and who has been conscious enough to follow football since the tail end of Maradona's career, it does seem like football is worse now. BUT my frame of reference could be informed by nostalgia (I often think other stuff was better when I was a kid too, eg films and video games, but there's no real logic behind that). Equally, someone who is 17-25 now has no idea what Brazilian Ronaldo, Zidane, Romario etc were like and would likely argue for the likes of Suarez or Lewandowski over them. So both perspectives are flawed - older and younger.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle - the game is more calculated now, and more scientific. However, this is a natural consequence of the proliferation of the internet, and people getting smarter as time passes and technology advances. These days coaches have access to underlying metrics and all sorts of stats, so they can shape players into robot types who know exactly what to do and when. However, there are still some of those beautiful players who do think off the cuff and remind you of the previous generations.

Maybe the biggest example and signfier of how football has changed now is the death of the number 10 or trequartista - these were players who had little defensive responsibility and were encouraged to try extravagant things and create constantly. They were often individual players and entertainers. Nowadays most coaches prefer athletes who press as a third midfielder to a Kaka or Ronaldinho or Riquelme who played in the hole.
 
soul24rage

soul24rage

Senior Member
DonAK said:
Young players are being coached out of their flair due to managers following Pep and obsessing about control and following the same repetitive patterns.

Probably a talent decline too. We have a lot of players that are jack of all trades, master of none type of guys too with all these wannabe strikers for example.

It's why players like Yamal, Musiala, Wirtz are a joy to watch because they can be effective and entertaining/play with flair. Hopefully Pedri can regain some of that magic too. Seem to have lost it in the way with all the injuries and other issues.
Click to expand...
Absolutely this. IMO, Kids are being taught too early in regards of tactics, while creativity, risk taking and imagination is being discouraged.

Messi and Scaloni put it best.

tribuna.com

‘We are losing the essence’: Lionel Scaloni explains how modern-day football is ruining the fun for youngsters

‘We are losing the essence’: Lionel Scaloni explains how modern-day football is ruining the fun for youngsters
tribuna.com tribuna.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1805228995736223800

This reminds me of the Nike commercial

 
Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
You guys sound like grumpy old grandpas who miss the 'good old days' :lol:

This topic with the lack of individual quality has been resurfaced many times here
Well, it might be true on an individual level, but on a collective level, the opposite is the case: teams nowadays have much more quality, in an incomparable degree to teams pre-2008

I have been watching football since 1994, and I can assure you, football has never been more entertaining.
The 'moments of magic' by a Riquelme, a Ronaldinho, a no 10 in the 'hole' that people miss were one side of the coin of the football back then. The other side was the lower degree of coherent and effective team play as a whole.

Just to an experiment yourself: sit down a watch a top game of 20 years ago. Let's say a Milan - Real Madrid of the 2003 or so. You will notice, despite the higher individual quality, how inferior the overall play is by both compared to today: teams that can't maintain any tempo in the game, dramatic low degree of fluidity, inability to sustain pressure on the opposition and overturn a result by this, etc.

It's day and night guys.
Don't let childhood nostalgia deceive you

PS: And in the big scheme of things, only tactical revolutions progress the sport, not the emergence of a great talent, and that has been the history of the sport itself. Football was different before Herrera, different before Michels, different before Sachi, etc.
But that's a topic for another time maybe
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Birdy said:
You guys sound like grumpy old grandpas who miss the 'good old days' :lol:

This topic with the lack of individual quality has been resurfaced many times here
Well, it might be true on an individual level, but on a collective level, the opposite is the case: teams nowadays have much more quality, in an incomparable degree to teams pre-2008

I have been watching football since 1994, and I can assure you, football has never been more entertaining.
The 'moments of magic' by a Riquelme, a Ronaldinho, a no 10 in the 'hole' that people miss were one side of the coin of the football back then. The other side was the lower degree of coherent and effective team play as a whole.

Just to an experiment yourself: sit down a watch a top game of 20 years ago. Let's say a Milan - Real Madrid of the 2003 or so. You will notice, despite the higher individual quality, how inferior the overall play is by both compared to today: teams that can't maintain any tempo in the game, dramatic low degree of fluidity, inability to sustain pressure on the opposition and overturn a result by this, etc.

It's day and night guys.
Don't let childhood nostalgia deceive you

PS: And in the big scheme of things, only tactical revolutions progress the sport, not the emergence of a great talent, and that has been the history of the sport itself. Football was different before Herrera, different before Michels, different before Sachi, etc.
But that's a topic for another time maybe
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Good post tbh. I tried to balance my post with some of this but you say it well.
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
I think the likes of R9 finds football boring now because it is more methodical and regimented. In his day there was less pressing, less coaching players within an inch of their lives, and more room for magic and off the cuff stuff. This was possibly even more true in the 90s and the 2000s than the 80s I think.

I think it's really that simple. As for which is better, more 'pressing' and 'coached 'games like now or more genius like in the past? I like both. I just love football in general.
 
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Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
Maradona37 said:
I think the likes of R9 finds football boring now because it is more methodical and regimented. In his day there was less pressing, less coaching players within an inch of their lives, and more room for magic and off the cuff stuff. This was possibly even more true in the 90s and the 2000s than the 80s I think.

I think it's really that simple. As for which is better, more 'pressing' and 'coached 'games like now or more genius like in the past? I like both. I just love football in general.
Click to expand...

Ah yes.
So he is whining number 10s don't have the acres of space they used to to do their magic.

Get it over pal!
Football changed, and it's much more nuanced and better now
Go play your tennis
 
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