How has Football changed over the past decade?

[Smiley Culture]

Thought it would be an interesting topic. Discuss. 

[Cicero]

Ball playing defenders without a doubt. 

More and more clubs are now adapting their style to match what modern football has brought, which was revlotionised by Guardiola. Being able to keep the ball under pressure from all players on the pitch, including the GK. The simple notion that the more you have of the ball, the more your opponent can't score against you. 

I think because of this, we won't see a comeback of conservative football in top sides any time soon.

[Danny]

23 hours ago, Cicero said:

Ball playing defenders without a doubt. 

More and more clubs are now adapting their style to match what modern football has brought, which was revlotionised by Guardiola. Being able to keep the ball under pressure from all players on the pitch, including the GK. The simple notion that the more you have of the ball, the more your opponent can't score against you. 

I think because of this, we won't see a comeback of conservative football in top sides any time soon.

I’m not sure how true that concept is, Man City don’t concede much because they’re a top side. Liverpool and Spurs have shown how easy it is for another top side to put multiple goals past them.

I think there’s still room for pragmatic coaches at the top level of the game

[Cicero]

4 minutes ago, Danny said:

I’m not sure how true that concept is, Man City don’t concede much because they’re a top side. Liverpool and Spurs have shown how easy it is for another top side to put multiple goals past them.

I think there’s still room for pragmatic coaches at the top level of the game

I'm willing to bet a pragmatic coach won't win either the Premier League or Champions League in the next decade. 

[Danny]

In terms of a change the Ballon d’Or hasn’t left Spain which is unprecedented in terms of it always remaining in one country for the decade, another reason as to how Spain has arguably been the best country for European football this decade going alongside international honours and their clubs European honours 

[Danny]

Just now, Cicero said:

I'm willing to bet a pragmatic coach won't win either the Premier League or Champions League in the next decade. 

I feel like the difference nowadays is the running rather than technical ability which a pragmatic coach is less likely to expect as opposed to Klopp or Guardiola

[Cicero]

3 minutes ago, Danny said:

I feel like the difference nowadays is the running rather than technical ability which a pragmatic coach is less likely to expect as opposed to Klopp or Guardiola

I think it's down to the entire XI being technically gifted. Liverpool, Real, City, Barca all create more and more chances due to how they utilise everyone, particularly their full backs. Look how influential Alba, Carvajal, Marcelo, Ramos, Walker, TAA, Robertson, etc all are to their sides in the final third. 

Having defenders who are good on the ball is the way forward. It's why I say the likes of Wan-Bissaka was born in the wrong generation. 

[Danny]

49 minutes ago, Cicero said:

I think it's down to the entire XI being technically gifted. Liverpool, Real, City, Barca all create more and more chances due to how they utilise everyone, particularly their full backs. Look how influential Alba, Carvajal, Marcelo, Ramos, Walker, TAA, Robertson, etc all are to their sides in the final third. 

Having defenders who are good on the ball is the way forward. It's why I say the likes of Wan-Bissaka was born in the wrong generation. 

I agree with you regarding wing backs, barely defenders these days. Dani Alves held the highest amount of assists to Messi.

But in terms of possession actually bettering a teams defence vs parking the bus or playing on the counter I’m not so sure. I’d like to see stats supporting that

[Carnivore Chris]

13 hours ago, Danny said:

In terms of a change the Ballon d’Or hasn’t left Spain which is unprecedented in terms of it always remaining in one country for the decade, another reason as to how Spain has arguably been the best country for European football this decade going alongside international honours and their clubs European honours 

To be fair, the Ballon d'or has generally always been won by players based in Serie A and La Liga, and the serie A was very dominant for a long period, even if not having a winner every year during that time. The only 2 players to win it during my time who were based in England I fact were Michael Owen and C.Ronaldo, both of which moved to Spain after winning the award funnily enough. I would also say that we have started to see alot less candidates coming from Serie A and in the coming years we are going to start seeing more and more Premier League based players up there.

It would have been interesting if Messi and C.Ronaldo hadn't existed. Going off who came the highest behind them since 2008:-

2008: Fernando Torres(Liverpool/Spain)
2009: Xavi Hernández(Barcelona/Spain)
2010: Andrés Iniesta(Barcelona/Spain)
2011: Xavi Hernández(Barcelona/Spain)
2012: Andrés Iniesta(Barcelona/Spain)
2013: Franck Ribery(Bayern Munich/France)
2014: Manuel Neuer(Bayern Munich/Germany)
2015: Neymar(Barcelona/Brazil)
2016: Antoine Griezmann(Atlético de Madrid/France)
2017: Neymar(Barcelona-PSG/Brazil)
2018: Luka Modric(Real Madrid/Croatia)
2019: Virgil Van Dijk(Liverpool/Netherlands)

Spaniards will feel hard done by to be honest as they haven't had a winner of the award since Luis Suárez in the 60s and then when they have a brilliant generation of players, it's during a time where there have been 2 monsters from Argentina and Portugal respectively. 

I would have to agree with Cicero for the record. Football as a whole has become much more offensive minded and about possession based football alot more than it probably was in the decade previous. We saw alot of negative sides for a while at the top level and this is also a reason why José Mourinho comes across as being outdated now and doesn't seem to have his way anymore. 

On the flip side, Atlético won the league during this decade by playing in an ultra defensive manner and had it not been for their neighbours, would have won 2 Champions Leagues. Nobody else could beat them in Europe and they disposed of everyone playing in this manner from Barcelona to Bayern to Chelsea. 

I would say the next decade could determinar a big change in football now that VAR exists, all these new big TV deals, clubs being bought out and funded by huge organisations, the new influx in the market for players, etc. It'll be interesting to see what this all leads to. 

[Smiley Culture]

Social Media - A proper mixed one, this. Social media is class in some respects. It allows you to follow a team(s) absolutely anywhere in the world on matchday, you can get breaking news in seconds through your phone or device. It gives fans a voice and I've found that there’s some brilliant fan accounts out there for a load of different clubs and that those opinions are worth reading, compared with a tabloid paper, for example. Fans’ having voices has a downside and the more famous of this genre is the ever embarrassing AFTV and that Man United fan who sits in his spare room videoing himself watching games and reacting to them. That said, social media has a dark side and faceless accounts that abuse people verbally and racially are a disgrace. 

The way we watch games - Amazon Prime yesterday and this evening and EFL clubs now stream games too. It’s changing and it seems to be for the better. Subscriptions to various TV companies are a joke though. People pay stuff like £100 a month for sports channels in the UK and that’s crazy, IMO. 

Attitudes - I think this is more so club owners and chairmen but fans also fall into this one, too. Attitudes have definitely changed and manager’s seem to be afforded less and less time to change the fortune’s of a club. It may be because I don’t have a real connection with a team and I’d categorise myself as a football fan rather than a supporter but it seems clear to me that you can’t expect huge changes in one transfer window. 

Premier League Club’s Behaviour - Due to the money in the Premier League teams now don’t need to sell as much as they have done in the past and can price their biggest assets at huge valuations. If tabloids are to believed, Palace want anywhere between £80-100m for Wilf Zaha, whereas ten years ago, possibly even less, they’d have likely snapped your hand off for £30-40m. 

[Carnivore Chris]

I like the way La Liga has gone with La Liga TV. 6 quid a month and during that month you get around 36 games, so that's 16p a game.

The Premier league though? There are now 3 channels with it on in this country, all of which you need to pay for a subscription for and paying for them all comes up to about £100 a month, which is absolutely scandalous if we are honest. I also think this'll get worse.

I wouldn't say it has changed for the better at all in this regard and I even remember when you had 2 champs league games per round on free to air tele and only had to be subscribed to one sports channel to watch it all. There is zero chance of this happening now. They are too greedy in this country when it comes to everything.

 

[ScoRoss]

6 minutes ago, Carnivore Chris said:

I like the way La Liga has gone with La Liga TV. 6 quid a month and during that month you get around 36 games, so that's 16p a game.

The Premier league though? There are now 3 channels with it on in this country, all of which you need to pay for a subscription for and paying for them all comes up to about £100 a month, which is absolutely scandalous if we are honest. I also think this'll get worse.

I wouldn't say it has changed for the better at all in this regard and I even remember when you had 2 champs league games per round on free to air tele and only had to be subscribed to one sports channel to watch it all. There is zero chance of this happening now. They are too greedy in this country when it comes to everything.

 

The EPL were forced back in 2005 to split up their television rights, ending any chance of one company winning the rights to show all the games.

For all the greed of the EPL, it wasn't them who decided to do this until the Amazon rights this season.

[Smiley Culture]

1 hour ago, Carnivore Chris said:

I like the way La Liga has gone with La Liga TV. 6 quid a month and during that month you get around 36 games, so that's 16p a game.

The Premier league though? There are now 3 channels with it on in this country, all of which you need to pay for a subscription for and paying for them all comes up to about £100 a month, which is absolutely scandalous if we are honest. I also think this'll get worse.

I wouldn't say it has changed for the better at all in this regard and I even remember when you had 2 champs league games per round on free to air tele and only had to be subscribed to one sports channel to watch it all. There is zero chance of this happening now. They are too greedy in this country when it comes to everything.

 

Segunda also has their own deal with YouTube where all games are live and free, with a fairly decent highlights package too.