The quality of football at the moment...

After discussing this with a few people on chat, I thought I would make a thread about this. The last three years I started to feel disinterested in football as a whole. The game as a spectacle has been atrocious to watch for a while. I need to point out that this has nothing to do with United, in SAFs last season, that was the worst football I have ever seen. I almost quit watching football after that season. I thought the 12/13 season was bad, this season has just been abysmal.

The world cup was atrocious as well. The semi finals 7-1 was one of the worst football matches I have ever seen. I thought the 94 and '10 WC were bad, but this last world cup literally was just something else. Ramos is a top cb? Are you kidding me? Brazil defending worse than a sunday league side? This was the semis of a WC! Germany didn't even play that well, that was the saddest part.

Even now I struggle to sit there and watch the full 90 minutes of matches, especially in the EPL were the football on show is just disastrous week in week out.

Has anyone else felt this way? If you did, what in particular made you feel this way?

That 7-1 was an aberration. Brazil dominated large portions of that match, but came undone in a short few minute span. Watch it again, outside those 20 or so minutes, Brazil looked a much better side. You can't have people like Oscar starting matches for you though.

You can't tell me the football Colombia played at the last world cup was not beautiful. Hell, you can't tell me what Algeria did was also not beautiful.

I think you are just getting older, and it is not as exciting as it use to be for you. Happens to all of us at one point or another.

strange

can't say I agree, I really enjoyed that 7-1.

Disagree on the World Cup. It was a great tournament, much better than 2010 and 2006. The group stages was very entertaining. Hell the first week itself, Spain being undone, Switzerland scoring a stoppage time winner, England vs Italy, Japan vs Ivory Coast was a spectacle.

Nope. Loving it. I find you can find something entertaining in almost any match really.

Entertainment is different from quality of football IMO. A game like Parma 4-5 Milan for example was incredibly entertaining and one of the games of the season in that respect. The quality of football obviously though was very poor at times.

In that respect, I see where you're coming from. I wouldn't call the last few years terrible but there has been a drop in quality. From a few years ago where prime Barca was playing football out of this world, Manchester United and Arsenal were much better, and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were still playing great football, there has been drop in quality. Nowadays, the only two teams I can say are playing really great football are Real and Bayern.

football has been less interesting, but definitely still fun.

and the wc was goat in terms of entertainment , no idea what you are talking about.

I have to say though, when i was young the quality of popular music was far, far higher. The stuff kids listen to nowadays is just atrocious.

ACMRox wrote:Entertainment is different from quality of football IMO. A game like Parma 4-5 Milan for example was incredibly entertaining and one of the games of the season in that respect. The quality of football obviously though was very poor at times.

In that respect, I see where you're coming from. I wouldn't call the last few years terrible but there has been a drop in quality. From a few years ago where prime Barca was playing football out of this world, Manchester United and Arsenal were much better, and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were still playing great football, there has been drop in quality. Nowadays, the only two teams I can say are playing really great football are Real and Bayern.

This is what I'm getting at. The actual quality of football is atrocious. There has been a massive dip in quality. The amount of errors made in that semis game was abysmal. I mean Boateng is playing for Bayern, look at that error he made for Agueros winner. The quality of footballers has taken a dip. When Ramos is considered a top cb, you have to start asking questions.

I think the quality is excellent. There's high level professionalism through and through, whether it's the athleticism, tactical level and analysis, attention to detail, technical skills. There's everything. I can watch two mid-table teams - say, Everton and Sunderland - play each other and there's a high tempo in the match, there's teamwork, there are technically exciting players. Sure, it might end 0 - 0, but then you've got to give credit for the defensive qualities of the teams.

And the World Cup's group stage was damn awesome, I don't know am I going to see a WC group stage like that ever again. The excitement dropped a little in the knock-out stages, but it was a very good World Cup, imo.

It's been shit for 10 years but now Pardew is gone everything will get better IMO.

Average quality of football is easily the best that it has ever been, but quality doesn't mean close and competitive matches.

Well footy nowadays is bit more predictable, but shocking upsets happens enough to keep the game interesting

The only league I can't really stand is the prem, footy there overall is shit imo, take out about 50% of the physicality, and the league would below average, their marketing>

I appreciate the footy in la liga cause the teams 9/10 times usually come out play even if it mean getting smashed, i think the league would improve a bit if the refs lets the game play on a bit more

WC was pretty good, lots of exciting matches and close calls, the 7-1 was a mistake fest, but a great game and a spectacle, that brought more fans to the game

lastly main thing that disgust me nowaday is the media and casual youtube fans, that can't tell a good game from a bad one, and just hype the brand, that why scrubs like bale is elite cause he scores while playing like a moron, in the old days he would have been a laughing stock

Entertainment vs. quality. Entertainment is still there (Spurs 5 - Chelsea 3). Quality not so much.

Italian football is at an all time low. When the best thing the big Milan clubs can get these days are Arsenal and Atletico rejects (Podolski, Cerci) and Gervinho is dominating the league you know what's up.

Bundesliga is a joke. Bayern is a great team but since Pep took over they have lost 2 games in 51. Both when they were already mathematically champions with weakened teams. Basically when they were still competing no one in the league beat them, even with all those injuries to Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Thiago, Lahm etc. I repeat, they are great but even prime Barca lost games and conceded goals from time to time as does Real Madrid right now who aren't worse than Bayern. Real Madrid under Ancelotti already lost 8 games in La Liga. Meanwhile Bayern have conceded 4 goals halfway through the season. This doesn't speak for the quality of Bundesliga.

Premier League has regressed. Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal. They are playing shit on a stick football throughout the season. It's unwatchable. Even this supposed invincible Chelsea side is prone to collapsing and conceding 5 goals to an average Spurs team. Solid team, typical Mourinho team tactically, far from a great team. Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Willian, Oscar, Cesc, Costa. Meh. Far from fearsome. Just the most organized team in the league. Doesn't hold a candle to the old school Chelsea teams in the mid 00s with prime Terry, Carvalho, Lampard, Makelele, Essien, Robben, Duff, Drogba ... City is a weird one. They have the players but they suck in Europe and aren't super solid defensively. Naive is probably the best word to use, pretty much like Real Madrid under Pellegrini when they won lots of games in the league with great football but somehow got their asses handed to them against Lyon in the CL R16 or in the Copa del Rey against Alcorcon.

La Liga: Barcelona is playing the worst football it has played in a decade. The forward line Messi, Neymar, Suarez is solving games on their own. Granted, it can solve A LOT of games on their own. As a TEAM however it is rather mediocre. Real Madrid and Atletico are at their best though so it makes it highly competitive at the top while Valencia, Sevilla and Vilarreal are all fighting it out for 4th place nicely. The gap between Barca and Sevilla halfway through the season is only 5 points and Sevilla has got a game in hand! I think in terms of competitiveness, prestige games (Clasico, Madrd derby), football quality, "shock" results (Barca 0 - Celta 1, Real Sociedad 4 - Real Madrid 2, Valencia 3 - Atletico 1 ...) and everything else considered it's by far the best package in the world.

Intl. footy has regressed the most. Germany is the only great, settled team right now in Europe but ancient Klose is still the best striker we have. Spain have the quality and potential without a shadow of doubt, remains to be seen if del Bosque can build a great unit until Euro 2016. France is also a good team. But that's that. I remember around 2000: Zidane's France, Figo's Portugal, a great Italy team, entertaining Spain team that lacked the winning mentality and luck but played proper football, a great Dutch team with Kluivert, Bergkamp, Staam, van der Sar, Cocu, Seedorf, Overmars, de Boer. Man, even Turkey had their best ever team around that time.

TL;DR: Watch La Liga.

Jibers Gary Neville said 60-70% of training in his day was defensive work, now he says it 20%. Guess that's the reason you feel this way.

Full article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11202272/Premier-League-football-is-witnessing-the-death-of-defending-as-I-knew-it-and-its-not-coming-back.html

Top 4 teams not rolling over the rest of the league anymore = regression according to GL.

The PL outside of the top 4 was *bleep* garbage back in the day, Stoke would roll them over blindfolded.

Nostalgia is seriously strong.

The players are less technical, but much better athletes now. Because players are stronger and faster, the pitch has shrunk... so there's less room for technical skill to be shown. As a result, a lot of people emphasize athleticism as it is more valuable in the modern game. You can't make the pitch sizes larger obviously They've tried to make the football more dynamic (to the horror of keepers) and they are making the rules so that physical play isn't allowed as much.

To me, the next step is to get rid of the offsides rule altogether. That will immediately stretch the pitch and open spaces.

Defensively, football is worse now than it has been for a long time but I don't think that the overall quality has suffered. The game is just changing, like it always does. Some top teams are worse than before so it's easy to be a fan of a top club and say that football has regressed, but it's because mid-table teams have generally improved and the top teams can't just get whoever they want as easily (i.e. what Mole said). It's just more competitive.

Anyway, it's impossible to compare overall quality between generations. Some will be better than others but it's impossible to say for certain so just enjoy the quality on show for what it is - I still do.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Top 4 teams not rolling over the rest of the league anymore = regression according to GL.

The PL outside of the top 4 was *bleep* garbage back in the day, Stoke would roll them over blindfolded.

Nostalgia is seriously strong.

oh please mole come off it, no matter how shit the top 4 are they are still the top 4 and will always be the top 4, chelsea,manu,city and arsenal, the lesser sides still suck, the only thing pl has going for it, is the money being pumped into the league to buy good player to play more shit footy, then the marketing experts wank about it being stronger than ever, then go out of the league get schooled in europe, hit reset and continue with the marketing.

Who cares about how shit you think the footy is lol.

Fact is Martin *bleep* O'Neill was challenging for top 4 in it's apparent hey day.

What a lot you don't seem to realise as you just support perennial title contenders is a league consists of 20 teams not *bleep* 4.

The teams outside the top 4 when Arsenal were unbeaten and when Ronaldo was at Man Yoo were absolutely *bleep* turd.

Teams like Stoke would fist those teams up the ass, the nostalgia about those so called great teams is hilarious especially when you consider the competition they faced.

I only watch the Spanish league and Danish players, and I can say that the quality is the highest I've ever watched on a consistent basis. Atleast since 07 season for Spanish teams. The overall depth of the league has increased. No more two horse race, Valencia back looking like themselves, Sevilla bossing, Malaga consistent in their key games, VIllarreal playing some really good football. The quality has not been this high while I've watched (since 03 I think).

Our football was also really great before Modric got rekt

I already explained everything in my post. Why are you guys still discussing?

Oh and that Portsmouth team which won the FA Cup and consistently fought for EL spots during this apparent PL hey day.....

That teams spine was David James-Linvoy Primus-Sulley Muntari-Benjani

GL pls.

I don't think having all the talent oncentrated in EPL and then a couple of elite teams around Europe is a good thing for overall quality... in fact, it's a horrible thing.  Sure... EPL football is at its highest quality ever.  But CL and Europa league suffer greatly because the quality is watered down in the other leagues.

You also have the issue that, tactically, most of top players are learning EPL style football.  What made football so interesting was to watch how the different football cultures meshed on a NT and how clubs from different football cultures compete in European play.

We've basically gotten rid of the "middle class" of football...  and that hurts the overall quality.   It's becoming far too predictable. The predictability is boring to me.

It's not it's a horrible thing, especially as most use the money really badly.

But the idea that PL has drastically declined is absolutely nonsense, obviously something that is only mentioned by those who just watched top 4 face offs as the rest of the teams were garbage.