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I can’t help making the following observations, bolstered by watching the current Euro games.
Top professional footballers, in spite of practising (one assumes) for most of the week and getting paid generously, still too often…
1) Overhit crosses from the wing.
2) Punt corners straight towards the goalkeeper and…
3) Goalkeepers, when kicking the ball upfield, do so without seemingly any attempt to find one of their own side.Of course, there are exceptions, but I can’t help raising a disapproving eyebrow when someone at this level, crossing from the wing and not under pressure lofts the ball way beyond where it was meant to go. Sometimes they’ll get it right, but too often they won’t. Perhaps that’s why David Beckham still has something to offer.
Or am I being too critical ?Top professional footballers, in spite of practising (one assumes) for most of the week and getting paid generously, still too often…
1) Overhit crosses from the wing.
2) Punt corners straight towards the goalkeeper and…
3) Goalkeepers, when kicking the ball upfield, do so without seemingly any attempt to find one of their own side.I agree and it’s something I’ve thought for years. Maybe it is a false view, but I had the impression that in the olden days (lets say the 1950s) wingers used to be able to not only beat the full back but deliberately find the centre forward’s head with the ball rather than just launching it in the air in the vague direction of the goal.
And goalkeepers punting the ball is a continual irritation. I always thought of it as an English thing, but I guess it catches on. The best way to score a goal is to have the ball. So what does the goalie do? Launch it into the air. Wasn’t it something that Capello was keen to cut out in his first friendly? I seem to recall him striding to the touchline to shout at the English goalie to roll it out.
Insomniac
Another thing I’ve noticed is that quite often, even when seemingly not under much pressure, professionals "drag" their shots wide. When I played (very low grade amateur soccer) I used to do that a lot, but I’d expect professionals to kick the ball cleanly more often.
They are of course playing at much greater speed than I ever did – indeed the few times I’ve sat at a match really close to the action instead of up in the stands I’ve been amazed by how fast it is.
indeed the few times I’ve sat at a match really close to the action instead of up in the stands I’ve been amazed by how fast it is.
You should come down to the Banks’s Stadium. You’ll be amazed how slow and inept it is. I swear some of them spend the entire week smoking fags and playing poker. They certainly don’t devote much time to ball skills.
…plus, assuming top pros know the offside rule, why are so many forwards often caught clearly offside. And why don’t the top pros who pass to them see that they’re offside?
You see when these idiots were paid tuppence ha’penny and spent Saturday morning down the pit, the odd misplaced pass or comedy own goal was all forgiven, all part of the game.
Now that they are paid more than NASA’s annual budget we expect a little more than a few sideways passes and a bit of falling over.
Overhit crosses from the wing.
I’d like to pick up on this one. From what I’ve seen of vintage football (I’m talking most everything in the black & white era) crosses were taken differently then. There seemed to be a lot more in the way of chipped crosses, the ball floating gracefully, but gradually, into the path of the onrushing centre forwards’ head. Perhaps nowadays with defenders being more savvy and goalkeepers more pro-active in coming off their line that isn’t possible and the now à la mode whipped cross is necessary. I can tell you- and I’m sure just about anyone to play any reasonable amount of football can vouch for this- that this method is much more difficult, hence the discrepancy in crossing averages from the 50’s.
I’m in no way making excuses for modern players who are paid sacks of moolah a week for the privilege of trying, but perhaps this would explain things.
it wasn’t possible to overhit the rain-sodden leather balls of the flat cap and rattle era
Some amateur footballers have better control of a football than their professional counterparts – and that is fact. First touch is all important, and I have witnessed some absolute belters playing today who could not trap a bag of cement. Athleticsm and stamina; rather than footballing ability and technique seems to be uppermost in some managers’ minds when recruiting and coaching players.
That said, I honestly think the overall standard is better now than it has ever been. The game is played at much faster pace and is more frenetic. The fitness levels of the modern professional are greater than they were, say fifteen, twenty, thirty and even forty years ago.
However, today’s classier players are no better (imo) skill wise than the top players from the 60s & 70s. The ball was heavier during those decades and as a consequence, it was easier to be more accurate when crossing the ball, as it tended to deviate less when in flight. Wingers were a feature of most teams back then, and crossing was a skill which was worked on and in many cases, perfected. Ryan Giggs & David Beckham were excellent crossers of a ball – but they obviously practiced very hard to perfect that skill.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Some amateur footballers have better control of a football than their professional counterparts – and that is fact. First touch is all important, and I have witnessed some absolute belters playing today who could not trap a bag of cement. Athleticsm and stamina; rather than footballing ability and technique seems to be uppermost in some managers’ minds when recruiting and coaching players.
quote]Not only that, but i do pull my hair out sometimes at the ammount of times a Pro gets himself offside so many times in a game and also the runs some forwards make are so poor it’s a breath of freash air when someone like Torres comes to Premership who at a young age is a master of this, lineker & aldridge were also very good at this
Some right rubbish on this thread
"Why cant they do this? why cant they do that?"
Suggest some watch a premiership game from the front row and absorb the sheer pace of the game as well as the claustrophobic lack of space
Space and time easily found will make any half competent amateur look good
And why don’t the top pros who pass to them see that they’re offside?
That is so very much a "view from the stands"
Some right rubbish on this thread
"Why cant they do this? why cant they do that?"
maybe they just need more time on the ball or more time to think … or even more space >>>
Cue ex Man Utd striker Diego Forlan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIJxfifw … re=related
Now, you tell me that a very poor amateur player, even if he was wearing pink welligton boots at the time, couldn’t have tucked that one away.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
My mate is a sheff utd fan he sent me this post from a sheff utd forum about pro’s now & pro’s a few years back please take with a pinch of salt…….
its a oldie ….
This was genuinely posted on the Sheffield United website by a fan
‘I’m feeling all angry about these modern day footballers and I know why they have all gone soft. It’s because of poncy names. That’s what it is. Remember the old days when footy players kicked a ******* ball made out of ten pounds of clay stitched inside a steel reinforced leather shell with laces made out of piano wire? Well, in them days, players could survive the rigours of the game because they were called things like Albert, Arthur, Bert, Harry, Eddie, Bill, Bob, Jack and Tommy. ******* tough names for tough men them was. And what do we have now? Gareth, Jason, Wayne, Dean, Ryan, Jamie, Robbie. ******* Tarts names they are. Great big ******* poofs.
No wonder the balls like a ******* balloon and shin pads are like slices of bread. In the old days you never saw Len Shakleton or Billy Wright with a poofy little Sondico piece of paper down his thin socks. ******* shin pads in them days was made out of library books and socks was like sackcloth. Same with jerseys. ******* shirts with holes in ‘em now so they can breathe. Yes and so Jamies hairless chest can breathe and he doesn’t get a chill. **** off. Stanley Mathews used to dribble round Europes finest wearing a ******* tent and shorts cobbled together from the jacket of his demob suit. Aye, he bloody did.
No wonder players fall over whenever an opponent comes near them. And they never used to show their arses at one another either. Can you imagine what might have happened if Don Revie had flashed his ring at Nat Lofthouse during a City – Bolton Wanders game? He’d have got one of them size 13 hobnail fuckers up his chuff.
******* therapy for stress my arse. Stan Colleymore slaps his missus about and he takes three seasons off with stress counselling. What is all that about?. In the old days, it was expected for footballers to belt the old sow about a bit, especially after a bad defeat. And the old women used to expect it and so they should have, they was lucky to be married to footballers.
Ernie McShi** of Port Vale got run over with a horse and cart one Friday night and still turned out against Bradford the next day. And he scored 2 goals. That’s cos he didn’t have a poof name. Good old Ernie. It is said he broke his hip, both legs and murdered his wife and buried her under the patio and still made the England team for the Home Internationals. Did he have any stress counselling? Did he bollocks!
And drugs? There was none of that in the old days. Oh no. In them days it was a quick shot of morphine before the kick off and you was lucky if you got that. By half time it had all but wore off so they pumped you full of Laudanum. None of this cocaine sniffing and shooting up Class A narcotics.
Goal celebrations. Don’t talk to me about goal celebrations. Crawling on the floor and thrusting their hips at the crowd. Huh, I’d have liked to have seen Cliff Bastin do that after a run down on the left flank and crossing for Alex James to fire home a winner. Handshakes, that’s what you got. That and a wank in the showers afterwards. But it was a proper wank…….all man stuff. None of these poofy wanks between blokes that you get nowadays with players like Graeme LeSoux and Stephen Gerrard. Allegedly. It was a harmless bit of spanking the plank among healthy young sportsmen.
Sixty ******* grand a week! Ha!. I wouldn’t pay ‘em tuppence. Two bob is what Tommy Lawton used to get………..a month. And Tom Finney still worked as a plumber four days a week when he was playing for England. Its true you know. Players had to work them days just to make up their money. Not like today. Stan Pearson had to clean sewers and doubled up as the Old Trafford shithouse cleaner. He had to go off during one game because a log jam had built up and blocked the u-bend. And that Eddie Hapgood, he was a male model though he never liked to talk about it.
So I say we start calling kids real male names again. If you are having a kid don’t even consider a poofy name like what people call their kids these days. Otherwise, what are we gonna get in twenty years time. The English team full of players called Ronan, Keanu, Ashley and ******* Chesney. **** that – call your kids Herbert, Len, Fred and Wilf and lets get the poofs out of the game once and for all.
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