Tackling is a disappearing art

Arsène Wenger believes that the art of tackling is quickly disappearing from the game.

The Arsenal manager has noticed major changes to that aspect of football in recent years, and feels that the improved standard of training pitches has had a major impact.

Wenger says it has led to a deterioration in the quality of challenges seen in the Premier League today.

“I feel tackling is a technique,” he said. “You look at a training ground 20 years ago and today. There are two main differences - tackling disappearance and quality of the heading disappearing.

“If you take the number of good headers in every team 25 years ago and compare them to today, there is no comparison. I’ve seen training sessions 20 to 25 years ago where you had to lift the ball to train. You could not play on the ground.

"Today, every training ground is immaculate. What’s happening? You have no tackling and no heading."

Arsenal.com

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Agree or Disagree ?

My take is on this (e.g. PL) with the amount of world class players the referees may try to protect players from injury because the Premier Legaue is centered around the money. Football is now a business and the players are its star asset, and like any asset, coaches, authorities and the money men alike are out to protect it. Wouldn't you if you spent millions of pounds on it? As a result of this we have seen the artt of tackling become rarer as every game passes by. World class players who rely on tacking as their trade such as, Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong and Nemanjas Vidic to name a few are criticised by the media, referees and opposing managers if they make a well-timed two footed slide tackle which does not endanger the player and wins the ball. This would been unheard of during the period when real men like Terry Butcher and Peter Reid played football. The Premier League as the most entertaining football league in the world, needs to ensure tackling as an art isn’t destroyed.

Football is a contact sport at the heart of which is tackling. The debate of tackling has raged on for years and shows no sign of ending, and it's not hard to see why. Images of Bobby Moore's challenge on Jairzinho in 1970 and Terry Butcher's bandaged, bloody foreehad dominat football's History books. It's this grit and determination that has made the sport such a draw across the world and why English clubs, even more so than their Spanish and Italian counterparts, can demand a global fanbase of millions. Let’s not take the art of tackling out of the beautiful game./

It would be real shame to see tackling forgotten in the game because football is built on the physical and competitive side and i for one enjoy watching this support and believe that tackling is an essential part of the game. To see it gone would be hard for me to call it the beautiful game.

The art of tackling is indeed disappearing, and mainly its the ref that instills the fear of carding a player and as you can guess the leniency of refs have changed throughout time.

i guess he is right , most tackles i see are miss timed and reckless.

Well yes, but its for a reason. Your not allowed to tackle anymore.

Now, everything is one step higher.

What used to be a red is now 5 game ban, what used to be a yellow is now a red, what used to be a normal foul is a yellow, whats isnt a foul is now a foul.

Look, I grew up in England..where "going in hard" is part of football education one way or another, but I understand that in other countries and cultures its not the same..im fine with that.

However, now, its ridiculous. Players are getting fouls, cards and everything for so little.

And this is linked to the supposedly lower standards of defenders too. Everyone talks about there is such lesser defenders now than the past, this is the worst set of defenders ever apparently...well I dont buy it. Some of those great defenders wouldnt last in todays game, with these sissy rules.

Nonsense
This man has cried about English defending since day one and now he's looking back with rose tinted glasses.
Players like rio and Evans are the future. Interceptors rather than tacklers.
Evans is he best pure tackler out there today. A full year or something stupid without a booking in England ffs

Agree with Arsene to an extent. Tackling will always be part of the game but it's not as extreme as it used to be so teams are trying an alternative way around it. It's definitely still in common in games though.

I do agree with Franchise with the referees more harsh on decisions, football in general has advanced. Hardly no players go in for the 50/50 ball as there's a great chance of you seeing a red card which is ridiculous. This relates to El Shaa's post about "protecting" the main players.

The "destroyer" type midfielder is slowly disapearing, I can agree with that but tackling in general is definitely not. Majority of the players today have the understanding of tactical positioning. This is similiar to cybers point about interceptors being more common which restrict the amount of tackles in a game.

A lot of passing based sides, such as Arsenal, LFC, Swansea etc (using EPL teams as examples) either contain or press the opposition to get the ball back. They rely on the opposition to make a mistake to get the ball back and use tackling as the second option - only if it's the last resort in getting the ball back.