Ajax 95 would wipe their collective asses with curent Aston Villa.
LOL
Ajax 95 already started having problems with sides that had better physicality than them even back in the day. Imagine pairing them with a 2024 side
Too funny this
What the time has actually done is absolutely not increase the athleticism gap between 00s and now to the point where 00s players wouldn't be able to keep up or play their game
The effect is pretty much opposite - it made players otherwise more pedestrian in nature individually function better and more organised as units and be able to achieve better results in league format against those with less quality, less organisation and resources to get both
A team like Villa or Pool can appear better than is through a sum of its parts. Doesnt mean they are anywhere near those other teams mentioned overall or would be in direct meetings. And that gap between the quality of individual parts is what would be their downfall when playing against elite sides of the 00s. Where McGinn or Milner misplaces 5 passes unforced, Pirlo would do it once if at all. No amount of training can beat the raw skill these teams had assembled in their squads. Which is evidenced by longevity of the players who in most cases continued to succeed outside those sides
The bolded part is correct, everything else is wrong
Pirlo survived for many more years because coaches like Conte would shield him with an army of physical runners and duelers to cover up for him in this department.
Pirlo would not misplace a single pass, but for it to have any worth he would need those runs in the space.
As I explained before, if you think Schevhenko was a good such runner in the early 00s, go watch a tape of a top CL game of the time, and you will see how much slower he looks in everything (max speed, quickness of unmarking from defender, etc) compared to even a mediocre winger/forward of our era
Look what Zidane said himself and Rassvet quoted. The former players themselves, the ones who have a little bit of self-knowledge in them, know already
I am not surprised that 'BF experts' resist to accept hard truths that dethrone their idols
Damn, birdy, sport is not a led tv to say that in each new generation the tv is simply and objectively better. It's based on humans. Hell, by this logic every new boxer is gonna be better than Ali because of new fitness programs and training methods and whatnot. Nobody thinks this.
The individual talent and ability of the players is the key factor. Take tennis, not just boxing, or other sports too. It's not a given that 3 new giants are gonna appear soon and rise to the level of Nadal, Federer, or Djokovic. Or a new Michael Jordan. That might not happen for many decades into the future.
Football is not an individual sport.
Besides, I already conceding that in terms of TECHNIQUE, and only there, the past generations were much better.
Individual talent these days is seen in other skills: you have Haaland who doesn't know whether the inside of ball is made of air or water, but is wanted by all teams because of his speed, power, and the timing of his runs
OK, everyone can keep denying it, that doesn't change the fact that it's the hard truth you don't want to see