Nick
Administrator
How on earth does he get to ref at a world cup?
Qatar World Cup 2022 (10 Viewers)
- Thread starter covboy1987
- Start date
Sky Blue Harry H
Well-Known Member
To be fair, it was for awarding us a penalty in the home game against Notts County in the first leg of the play off.
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Most teams were mate, I've been saying for ages the overall standard of football is down and I think it becomes blindingly obvious at international level.
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Otis
Well-Known Member
The trickery is better I think. The technical ability. But there's less space on the pitch because players are much more athletic, so can cover so much more ground and it can make games very scrappy a lot of the time.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Fair point.
AOM
Well-Known Member
Paul Anthony
Well-Known Member
The player I've been most disappointed with so far has been the one whose been scoring for fun in the last few major International tournaments.
Own Goals just hasn't turned up yet. Must be carrying a knock....
Own Goals just hasn't turned up yet. Must be carrying a knock....
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure i'd agree the technical ability is up from say, 20 years ago. In fact in many cases i'd say discipline is favoured over individual flair.
Evo1883
Well-Known Member
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Thanks mate, now i look like i'm having a no context wank over this Forum.
Evo1883
Well-Known Member
And in regards to those sides , I think Brazil were better in 2002 and France in 2000
Otis
Well-Known Member
Maybe.
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Agree, I think you'd struggle to think of a better international front 3 than Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo.
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Liquid Gold
Well-Known Member
I think a lot of it has to do with youth prospects being stuck in academies with no pathways to the first team.
I the modern era Ronaldo would be sat in a big team's youth set up with the occasional loan and then end up sold on without having developed as much. There is absolutely no chance he would have had two seasons of mens football aged 17-19 at PSV to find his feet.
That's just the superstars too, there must be loads of players who could have developed into decent international players for mid-ranking countries who just sat in the Chelsea academy until they turned 25.
I the modern era Ronaldo would be sat in a big team's youth set up with the occasional loan and then end up sold on without having developed as much. There is absolutely no chance he would have had two seasons of mens football aged 17-19 at PSV to find his feet.
That's just the superstars too, there must be loads of players who could have developed into decent international players for mid-ranking countries who just sat in the Chelsea academy until they turned 25.
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Clubs collecting players like football stickers is a massive problem.
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D
Deleted member 9744
Guest
I don't agree and I suspect Evo is saying African teams seem weaker compared to other countries than in the past.
Players now are so much stronger, faster and technically adept. It doesn't necessarily mean games are more entertaining but teams now would easily beat their equivalents of 10 or 20 years ago.
AOM
Well-Known Member
Great side! Think they underachieved in any of the World Cups they appeared in though.
Probably similar to England at the time. Great players, but not a team
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Than 10 or 20 years ago? I really don't agree.. many players were playing 10 years ago so that makes no sense at all. If you go back 30 plus years then yes definitely.
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Why would track and field athletes/swimmers/cyclists etc all be consistently getting faster and stronger, while footballers were all getting slower and weaker?
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Go back and look at our team at the turn of the millennium. Keane, Hadji, McAllister... these were exceptional players, to suggest they perhaps wouldn't match up against prem players at a mediocre prem club now is nonsense... borderline insulting actually.
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TomRad85
Well-Known Member
The Arsenal invincibles were 20 years ago. Are we suggesting Henry, Vieira, Pires, Cole, Ljungberg weren't fit or fast? I need to watch it back, presumably Henry looks like a 3 legged dog compared to all the strikers breaking the sound barrier these days.
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Evo1883
Well-Known Member
I mean , Messi still plays today he was playing in 2004 , a year after , its not that different in speed
Nick
Administrator
Henry is fitter now, Ljunberg was fitter with hair.
Yeah he was great, but that's not what we're talking about.
To say that incremental advances in sports science have for some reason bypassed football players doesn't make sense to me. As someone else said, players becoming more healthy and technically gifted might not always make for a more entertaining product (baseball is going through a mini-crisis for this very reason) but it does give today's players an edge compared to players of the same natural ability 10/20 years ago. Messi/the Arsenal Invincibles/Robbie Keane were great back then, but would have ended up even better if they'd developed during 2022 rather than 2002.
Evo1883
Well-Known Member
I don't think that actually mate sorry , Ronaldo nazario would absolutely wreck the world's best defenders today .
If they are faster , it's not by too much overall
TomRad85
Well-Known Member
Nick
Administrator
I think the original Ronaldo was more like Haaland which is why defenders now don't know what to do with him.