What football has lost is its artistry and its beauty. Teams are better organised now, players are fitter, pitches are a million times better, systems are everything, and individuals that break the system are in greater scarcity than ever before. Work rate is almost as an important consideration for an attacker, as creativity and goalscoring are. The game has changed. Almost beyond recognition.
Most people will say it has changed for the better. The technique of the average player is much higher, as a result of more rigorous training, and having to survive in more intense physical environments (constant pressing); but there is a cost to that; and the cost is the artistry and beauty of the game, which has largely been eradicated. Think about it.....the best goals you ever saw, were the result of those incredible mazy dribbles, or some insane flicked pass, or an outrageous piece of control followed by a long distance volley, etc., etc., etc. The modern game is very much data driven, which makes teams more effective, but it also heavily discourages or eliminates low percentage attempts at scoring or creativity. And whilst that helps teams maintain possession and steadily build pressure towards a clear cut opening, it does become very repetitive as it manifests as prescribed patterns of play. It views as being fairly robotic and devoid of uniqueness or charm.
One thing about going back a couple of decades to watch games is that you notice that the patterns of play are obviously less detailed and discernable than they are today, and as a result teams look less sophisticated compared with modern standards. But you also notice the conspicuousness of individual expression, the sort of individual expression that gets fans on their feet and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Long range wonder goals used to be a staple of football, now though, they are a rarity. We've spent a decade watching Man City score the same three or four goals over and over and over again, to an incredibly high level of effectiveness and to a prolific degree; but one could (and I am) argue that it is painfully boring.
I've been football mad my entire life, but in the last few years I've found myself watching less and less of it. I used to tune in to watch some teams solely because they had a true artist of a player playing. Players who just don't exist in the same way anymore. I'd turn on to watch a decent, middling team like Deportivo La Coruna, just so I could see Valeron in action. Now if I tune in to watch any team outside Barca or Madrid in La Liga, I know I am getting 22 hard working players, playing to a controlled, highly intense degree. But I'm not likely to see any art. So it just doesn't have any appeal to me anymore. I think the only reason I truly follow football these days is because of habit and potential bragging rights. As a spectacle that captures the imagination, and transports me to another world of wonder.....that sport is long gone.
Much of the debate centres around athleticism. It's truly the most decisive factor in the modern game, and that is a huge shame. For athleticism, I watch Athletics. For beauty, creativity, imagination, unpredictability, I used to watch football. For every mercurial genius of yesteryear, who people claim would never make it today because of their lack of workrate or physicality (potentially very true), there is a modern equal who is a big success today because of their incredible athleticism but who would've been bang average in previous eras because of their lack of standout technical qualities. It works both ways. Just like goalkeepers, who used to judged on what they did with their hands, but are now judged on what they do with their feet.
