Quality of Football

[Herbert Anchovy]

At the weekend I was chatting to a few of the lads about the quality of football at the Euro's and unanimously we agreed that it was poor. Almost every game has been dull. For the lads who watch premier league teams every week, this was no surprise though. They've noticed over the past 2-3 years how their teams have become obsessed with risk averse possession football, men behind the ball and seemingly trying to walk the ball into the net to the point that, as a spectacle, it's becoming mediocre. Very few pieces of individual skill, the knack of taking players on and getting past their man is virtually dead.

Only a few years ago, almost every team at the Euro's and World Cup had a superstar who could change a game with an individual piece of brilliance but we just don't see it now. Is it down to over-coaching, a priority of not losing above winning? For fairness, I do remember these exact same things being said way back in the 1980's and there's an element of rose tinted glasses at play, but when I recall the great football played at the World Cup and Euro's quite recently this one is a huge disappointment.

[colincramb]

I think teams were just much stronger back 20/30 years ago. There isn’t as many great players around nowadays. For example, players at the 2002 World Cup that were probably world class:

Original Ronaldo
Rivaldo
Ronaldinho
Roberto Carlos
Cafu
Batistuta
Veron
Zidane
Henry
Vieira
Thuram
Lizarazu
Owen
Ferdinand
Cole
Marc wilmots
Ballack
Kahn
Klose
Figo
Totti
Del piero
Buffon
Vieri
Maldini
Cannavaro
Nesta
Raul
Suker
Montero
Eto

List goes on

Contrast those names with the ones in this tournament

[pib]

I thought the initial rounds of group games were actually really entertaining on the whole, and we didn't have many 0-0's in the first couple of rounds of games.

The games that have been the most enjoyable to watch for me, in the main, haven't featured the fancied teams. Performances from Georgia, Albania, Turkey, Austria, and at times Switzerland have been the highlights for me. Not France, England, Portugal, Germany, Italy or Spain.

I think a lot of the fancied nations are playing quite conservative football. Especially France and England. They will probably argue that it's the way to go far in a tournament as they're both in the semis, and as an England fan I'd rather us be in the semis than not, however we do it.

[Jimmydee]

Pep started this style of football a few years back and it has filtered down to our league, also the risk of financial loss due to relegation between the leagues are massive so everything in playing style is too cautious.
It seems like any young prospect with natural flair and ability gets its drilled out of them if they make it to the higher leagues.

[colincramb]

I think the Dutch might do for us on Wednesday. We’ve rode our luck in pretty much every game and I think it will finally run out of Wednesday. They’ve got much better attacking players than any team we’ve faced so far.

[sf9944]

I'd agree that the quality of football hasn't been great overall but I have been gripped by the matches involving England anyway just because there is so much at stake.

On the point about there being fewer standout megastars these days.  Is that because the standard of players generally has improved making it harder for the superstars to stand out?  Maybe this is also a reason why games are getting more boring - teams have fewer weak-links and therefore chances are fewer and further between?

[Thorney]

I think teams were just much stronger back 20/30 years ago. There isn’t as many great players around nowadays. For example, players at the 2002 World Cup that were probably world class:

Original Ronaldo
Rivaldo
Ronaldinho
Roberto Carlos
Cafu
Batistuta
Veron
Zidane
Henry
Vieira
Thuram
Lizarazu
Owen
Ferdinand
Cole
Marc wilmots
Ballack
Kahn
Klose
Figo
Totti
Del piero
Buffon
Vieri
Maldini
Cannavaro
Nesta
Raul
Suker
Montero
Eto

List goes on

Contrast those names with the ones in this tournament

That is 1 heck of a list of players, all at the same tournement

[MachoMadness]

It's not a fair comparison really because that's a list of players who've all finished playing and wrapped up long, world class careers. You can't really talk about players like Yamal and Guler, who've had exceptional tournaments, in the same way because their careers are just getting started. When we look back 20 years from now, we'll be able to look at players like Bellingham, Mbappe, Musiala etc in the same way that people look at Del Piero and Raul now.

[DonnyNoel]

I think some of it is linked to be able to finish 3rd and get out the group. Should never be a format. Lots of teams won their first game and sat back.

With regards to football overall, I think defenders are catching up to the athleticism of attackers.

[Drover]

It's not a fair comparison really because that's a list of players who've all finished playing and wrapped up long, world class careers. You can't really talk about players like Yamal and Guler, who've had exceptional tournaments, in the same way because their careers are just getting started. When we look back 20 years from now, we'll be able to look at players like Bellingham, Mbappe, Musiala etc in the same way that people look at Del Piero and Raul now.

It's also an unfair comparison because it's a list of world cup players,how many Brazilians,Argies etc play in the Euro's?

[dickos1]

I think the Dutch might do for us on Wednesday. We’ve rode our luck in pretty much every game and I think it will finally run out of Wednesday. They’ve got much better attacking players than any team we’ve faced so far.

They’ve equally rode their luck, shouldn’t even have got out the group really.
I’m not sure their attacking players are better than the Swiss either