General Modern Football: Is It Just Boring?

[MustardYellow]

erm, when exactly has it been the case that something that 'oversteps the line of legality' was acceptable?

I had a similar conversation with a friend who works in the police. A lot of football songs incite violence, and some actually do cross the legal barrier of 'incitement'. The police just don't do anything because it's impossible to enforce - you can't arrest a whole stand of fans. Quite a lot of things in football are technically illegal but a lot deem acceptable. As an example, very few had an issue with us invading the pitch in the promotion game vs Wycombe, but technically everyone there committed a crime.

The point I'd make is that football has always been an escape for people, where boundaries could be pushed and many of the normal social conventions don't apply (or are at least relaxed). It was one of the very few places where you could push boundaries, sing crude songs, make 'offensive' jokes, swear at strangers, shout profanities at the top of your lungs, walk down the street drink in hand chanting.

Basically, you could be a bit naughty and it wouldn't be a big deal. There was almost a 'cheekiness' to football, and 99% of the people who went expected that and accepted it - even if you didn't partake it was part of the experience.

The novelty of a lot of that is quite quickly disappearing, though. Football fans have always been 'watched' but they are now watched so intensely that a million spotlights are shone on one or two transgressions in a crowd of thousands and blown out of proportion.

Whether you think the things having spotlights shone on them is right or wrong is a different conversation, but I think it's hard to deny that such intense policing of pretty much everything is having an impact on atmosphere's.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I hated the homophobic chanting Palace fans directed towards Brighton fans. Used to think of the younger fans who might be gay but yet to come out and how they might feel about it all. For a club that was rightly progressive on race given its local population (Ron Noades to one side) the homophobia was unexpected and crass.

It’s a shame the Brighton fans didn’t come back with We’re here, We’re queer, Get used to it!!

 

[Paul Cannell]

erm, when exactly has it been the case that something that 'oversteps the line of legality' was acceptable?

It depends who you are, mate. If you have to ask you just don't know.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Whether you think the things having spotlights shone on them is right or wrong is a different conversation, but I think it's hard to deny that such intense policing of pretty much everything is having an impact on atmosphere's.

If it was Dorothy Squires it was cruel to shine a spotlight on her, ever. Poor tuneless woman.

 

[Whingit]

Football is more boring because of stats and the reduction of risk taking.

It's nice to see players trying their best to keep the spirit alive (my guess is Newcastle).

 

[holdsteady]

Football is more boring because of stats and the reduction of risk taking.

It's nice to see players trying their best to keep the spirit alive (my guess is Newcastle).
View attachment 17931

Whatever club it is once it gets exposed expect Kyle Walker to put in a transfer request to get a move there.

 

[QuietYeller]

One aspect that really drives me nuts is the wingers in the prem never beat a fullback on the outside. Jack Grealish for all his ability dribbles and then turns back and passes back to the midfielder (and then he passes back to the defender etc) retaining possession is drummed into these players.
Or they cut in because the right footed player plays on the left wing and vise versa.
At least at our level, and with our players it’s good to see Murphy, or mills and recently burey taking full backs on old school style

 

[Wandering Yellow]

One aspect that really drives me nuts is the wingers in the prem never beat a fullback on the outside. Jack Grealish for all his ability dribbles and then turns back and passes back to the midfielder (and then he passes back to the defender etc) retaining possession is drummed into these players.
Or they cut in because the right footed player plays on the left wing and vise versa.
At least at our level, and with our players it’s good to see Murphy, or mills and recently burey taking full backs on old school style

There are few things more fun than watching a winger skin a full back for pace, whip in a cross and see a 6ft 5 bald striker head it into the net with venom.

 

[Wandering Yellow]

Apparently the offside check in the Forest v Manchester United game took SIX minutes.

At this point, it feels like fact rather than opinion modern football is more boring.

 

[QR]

Apparently the offside check in the Forest v Manchester United game took SIX minutes.

At this point, it feels like fact rather than opinion modern football is more boring.

That was the best six minutes of the game.

 

[Wandering Yellow]

Excellent video covering the topic of this thread.

 

[Mad Dog]

Excellent video covering the topic of this thread.

Ironically, I got 5 minutes in, and I was bored to tears

 

[Wandering Yellow]

Ironically, I got 5 minutes in, and I was bored to tears

In summary footballers are just as good but there's a very fair claim football is more boring.

 

[Mad Dog]

It's definitely more boring, but I don't think footballers are as good as they were, nowhere near as good in fact.

Players back then were geniuses, maestros and truly world class, they really MADE things happen on the pitch, and you could see it really meant something to them as well.

The way players are lauded these days for simply being able to retain possession and "control games" by simply passing the ball around relentlessly is embarrassing.

Players these days are certainly more super athletic, but it's totally unnecessary, as they were very athletic before they became all turbo charged, and now they just get injured more as a result anyway.

And they're wimps these days, and cheats, and over paid, and over pampered....you've set me off now, I'm gonna stop before I get carried away, but I'd take the game and the players as it was back then, over what it's become without a doubt

 

[MarkG]

It's definitely more boring, but I don't think footballers are as good as they were, nowhere near as good in fact.

Players back then were geniuses, maestros and truly world class, they really MADE things happen on the pitch, and you could see it really meant something to them as well.

The way players are lauded these days for simply being able to retain possession and "control games" by simply passing the ball around relentlessly is embarrassing.

Players these days are certainly more super athletic, but it's totally unnecessary, as they were very athletic before they became all turbo charged, and now they just get injured more as a result anyway.

And they're wimps these days, and cheats, and over paid, and over pampered....you've set me off now, I'm gonna stop before I get carried away, but I'd take the game and the players as it was back then, over what it's become without a doubt

It's down to the UEFA coaching manual / modern tactics that says possession is the number one priority.
So you won't see the likes of Paul Moody or Danny Hylton going off and doing their own thing running at defences. Instead they will have passed to someone else rather than risk being tackled and the opposition starting again with possesion.

 

[Wandering Yellow]

It's down to the UEFA coaching manual / modern tactics that says possession is the number one priority.
So you won't see the likes of Paul Moody or Danny Hylton going off and doing their own thing running at defences. Instead they will have passed to someone else rather than risk being tackled and the opposition starting again with possesion.

I agree.

I think football is more boring (particularly at the top level with VAR) but I don't think its because footballers have become worse, the game has just become more robotic.

I didn't watch it but apparently Manchester City v Arsenal was a snoozefest.

 

[tonyw]

Was watching the Man City vs. Arsenal game on Sunday (well, half-watching.....would've been bored out of my mind if I'd been concentrating on it fully)....

.....and I got to thinking that the big problem with the games today is the way that top sides defend. Everyone gets 8 or 9 players back behind the ball, drops deeper and deeper into this low block where almost all of those players are basically in the penalty area and there really is next to zero space. Nigh on impossible to pick a through ball, and not much easier to get a strike on goal.

I don't think the players are any less skillful - if anything, I think the technical level is actually higher than it's ever been. But the defensive tactics have gotten so good that there's just no space to do anything in and around your opponent's area.

The same thing happened in Ice Hockey in the early 2000s. The NHL teams perfected a style of defense that they called 'The Trap' to clog up the neutral zone and make it hard for opposition teams to attack; the number of goals and all-round attacking play dried up horribly. In the end, they had to change the rules to get the hockey flowing again. Though I'm not exactly sure how you could make a rule to prevent the low block without fundamentally changing the game of football.

 

[Mad Dog]

It's down to the UEFA coaching manual / modern tactics that says possession is the number one priority.
So you won't see the likes of Paul Moody or Danny Hylton going off and doing their own thing running at defences. Instead they will have passed to someone else rather than risk being tackled and the opposition starting again with possesion.

Exactly. And that's why it's more boring.

 

[Mad Dog]

I agree.

I think football is more boring (particularly at the top level with VAR) but I don't think its because footballers have become worse, the game has just become more robotic.

I didn't watch it but apparently Manchester City v Arsenal was a snoozefest.

It was a snooze fest, so much so I fell asleep, and woke myself up with my snoring

 

[Wandering Yellow]

Was watching the Man City vs. Arsenal game on Sunday (well, half-watching.....would've been bored out of my mind if I'd been concentrating on it fully)....

.....and I got to thinking that the big problem with the games today is the way that top sides defend. Everyone gets 8 or 9 players back behind the ball, drops deeper and deeper into this low block where almost all of those players are basically in the penalty area and there really is next to zero space. Nigh on impossible to pick a through ball, and not much easier to get a strike on goal.

I don't think the players are any less skillful - if anything, I think the technical level is actually higher than it's ever been. But the defensive tactics have gotten so good that there's just no space to do anything in and around your opponent's area.

The same thing happened in Ice Hockey in the early 2000s. The NHL teams perfected a style of defense that they called 'The Trap' to clog up the neutral zone and make it hard for opposition teams to attack; the number of goals and all-round attacking play dried up horribly. In the end, they had to change the rules to get the hockey flowing again. Though I'm not exactly sure how you could make a rule to prevent the low block without fundamentally changing the game of football.

The obsession with stats doesn't help. Youngsters often seem to love it and bang on on X about "XG" "expected chances" "successful dribbles". Then at that level every single goal and major incident is checked and those checks can take 5 minutes, what a way to take the feeling off of a goal.

The games are so tightly managed. Grealish has gone from the most exciting player in years to just a cutting inside merchant under Pep.