Watching Football In Your Time

Do you thinks it has improved, since you have been watching it, or not as good as it was?

Whatever, is it the players in the game itself that have made the difference or the rule changes, the league set up, or has too much TV involvement spoilt it like Mr Clough used to say ?

mercury_redstone7 said:

Do you thinks it has improved, since you have been watching it, or not as good as it was?

Whatever, is it the players in the game itself that have made the difference or the rule changes, the league set up, or has to much TV involvement spoilt it like Mr Clough used to say ?

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Not as good. Players, Prima Donnas stealing a living (generalisation) governing bodies changing rules, poor officials. Sad really because playing surfaces are excellent, footwear and balls to suit.

I think the magic and skill of players has gone, the Ronaldinho, Zidanes, Gazza etc we won't see the likes of again, it's been trained out of them, now it's all stats and figures.

It's difficult to be objective on this as I definitely liked football more before real life got in the way.

Trying to be objective though, I think the game has got less interesting since the top players have all been hoarded by 4 or 5 sides. Probably since Abramovich got involved in early 00s?

A player like Le tissier or Okocha or Juninho would now just be a part of Chelsea/city/Liverpool's squad.

Started watching in the 70s...and it had a certain charm yes but no way was it close to being as good as today's football.Matches often ended in a draw, football was mainly an endurance sport on heavy pitches.You had to stand so long your legs wouldn't move at the final whistle,and you were likely to get your head pezzled in.
I am nostalgic like most folk on here, but watch the artistry skill and commitment in the Man U Liverpool match at the weekend, crazy to say football hasn't improved beyond all recognition.

The standard gets better each decade.

I enjoyed it more as a spectacle 20 years ago.

The Man United team of the late 90s would get played off the park by the current Man City team.
I much preferred watching United / Arsenal and then also Chelsea rivalries during that era than I do watching Man City / Liverpool of this era. There was more passion. More characters. More hype.

The improvements since I started watching in the very early 90's have been massive. The technique of the players, the athleticism, the speed and the tactical efficiency of teams has improved ten fold. Look at keepers from the 80/90's compared to now.

The game isnt necessarily more enjoyable though, that is a different set of parameters

Football has definitely changed since I started watching since the mid 60’s.
A prime example is the defenders of the 60’s/70’s would definitely get more red cards if the played today, imagine Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter, Ron Harris, Tommy Smith facing the likes of Phil Foden, Saka and Garnacho, refs would have a field day
Can’t imagine the present Manchester City team being able to play there style of football on the old Baseball Ground pitch

The standard is higher because of the technicality and athleticism of even 'average' players these days.

I dont think that translates into being more enjoyable though.

With the game moving towards stats, possession, passes completed etc a lot of the flair and excitement has been taken out of the game.

One thing for me is looking at top level strikers, even just a few years ago all the top teams had one. Europe was littered with the likes of Eto'o, Ibrahimovic, Henry, Villa, Torres, Van Nistlerooy, Shevchenko. Players that you would want to watch week in week out.

Even some of the lesser teams had stand out, international class centre forwards that you would look forward to seeing play.

These days you can probably count on one hand the number of top class strikers right across Europe.

I think this is part of why the Champions League has lost some of its excitement as well. Growing up I wouldn't be able to wait for the CL to see the likes of Ronaldinho & Kaka and more recently the likes of Robben and Ribery tearing teams apart for Bayern.

Now it seems like those players are very few and far between or cant play the game in the same way flair players were given the licence to a few years ago.

To see how things have changed look at the Brazil squad for this weekends game and see how many are still in Brazil.

It peaked in the mid 90's for me. Much more interesting and entertaining then