Who else thinks that football has gotten a lot worse over the last decade? Sure, tactics and stamina are better, but skill are worse. There is a lot less great players than in the old days.
Just look at national teams. Only NT that has better players now than 10-15 years ago is Germany. Look what happened to Brazil, Netherlands, England and Portugal. They used to have star-packed teams. Argentina had a slight less firepower but made up for it by having world class defenders like Ayala, Zanetti and Samuel.
What is the reason for this drop in player quality? Bosman ruling? A lot of countries can train decent/good players today, but they no longer produce top-tier, world class stars.
If you grew up at the turn of the century then you can't look at current teams and not get depressed. I watched England game today and that team is a joke. They used to have Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Shearer, Beckham, Terry, Ferdinand, Owen and now? The same with Poortugal, remember when they had Figo, Rui Costa, Deco? After Sneijder, van Persie and Robben retire NED team will be a national disaster. You will go from Bergkamp, Seedorf, Davids, van der Sar, van Nistelrooy, Stam etc. to team of 22 "who the fuck is that" players. Don't even get me started on Brazil...
We're in a period where new stars are being made and the old one's are retiring. Of course you're not going to have those big stars when they're in retirement homes/retiring or are too young/early in their career to be big stars.
Jackson Thomas
Does anyone remember that great Polish team? No? Neither me.
Alexander Barnes
>Only NT that has better players now than 10-15 years ago is Germany Spain, Poland, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Wales, Croatia
Nostalgiafag pls go
Andrew Robinson
Does anyone remember the current Portugal team drawing to Iceland?
John Nelson
Adriano doesn't deserve to be in this pic
Caleb Young
>Chile >not remembering based Salas and Zamorano >Croatia >3rd place in the most based WC ever
You also completely forgot about African teams.
Austin Williams
I disagree. These teams have little chemistry, but a World XI today would wreck one from '90
Lucas Murphy
Still salty from world cup playoffs? Does anyone remember cuckland being relevant in football?
Lucas Perry
money!
Josiah Gray
OP said 10-15 years ago, so 2001-2006. If you want to compare each current NT to their best ever versions, then obviously they're going to look weaker
Nathaniel Russell
B-bronze '94! ;_;
Michael Wright
Football is at it's highest standard ever. Not just in terms of the top players around but the average player is much MUCH better than 20 years ago.
Watch the Championship in England, it's like the PL from the 90s minus the top few teams.
The speed of the game is much greater and teams are much more solid defensively so it's harder to stand out as a top player. Anyone can look good when they have time on the ball and are playing poor defences.
Matthew Sullivan
I meant the classic powers, not the smaller teams.
Also you shouldn't mention Spain, large part of their golden generation already retired. Also they had a lot of great players back then, it's just that the team always choked or was refballed.
Wales? Giggs > Bale.
Also, like someone already said, African teams. For example Sweden had Larsson, Ljungberg etc.
Jason Davis
>I meant the classic powers, not the smaller teams. Then make a thread about classic powers being weaker, not about there being less great players.
>Wales? When was the last time Wales participated at a major tournament? And made the last 16 too
Asher Hughes
This might be the answer desu
Owen Brooks
2006 Argentina was the best team ever. Debate me.
Noah Powell
They made a major tournament final once, at home, but they lost it.
Lucas Carter
This basically.
Andrew Campbell
fuck off, we won today
Isaiah Cook
Its spain 2008
Sebastian Kelly
you're wrong. Like I said football is at it's highest standard ever in terms of tactics, stamina, speed etc. But not in skills. You really think that players I listed in my first post wouldn't shine today? I mean guys like Totti and Del Piero were among the very best players in Serie A even when they were almost 40. Those younger losers could not compare. Also didn't Luca Toni become top scorer in Serie A again recently at the age of, what, 38?
Which reminds me I forgot about Italy. They went from Maldini, Nesta, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Gattuso, Totti, Del Piero, Vieri, Inzaghi etc to their current squad. Shocking.
Daniel Sanders
Were you even born?
>Mfw I remember 00 defeat against France, 04 defeat against Grease, 06 defeat against France again, 08 defeat against Spain Life is suffering.
Says the guy that has won nothing for more than 50 years.
Jace Harris
Spain 2010 would beat them
more entertaining /= better
Colton Reyes
It's not "think" it's a fact. There were more than a few powerhouse teams filled with legends on the roster a decade ago. Now all we here is "Ronaldo and Messi are out of this world." Yeah this world the world that soccer is in right now. It's shit. Messi and Ronaldo a decade ago in their prime would no doubt still be great but they wouldn't be the "another planet" meme type players that they are. So much skill and flair then. Now sure it's stamina bigger stronger but no skill and beauty soccer is dead
Gabriel Collins
>that its only nostalgia meme i feel the same my polish friend, teams were stacked with stars
Anthony Parker
less space and less time with the ball
journalists love talking about muh 10, we need muh 10, but 10s are dead, we need side-passing machines like Iniesta.
Name a time when there has been a greater group of attacking players?
Serie A is not as strong as it used to be.Everyone knows that. There are still many top class players playing today. More than ever before imo.
Isaiah Murphy
I agrre OP
I think it has a lot to do with players personality being oppresed through teams tactics
I remember the World Cup 98 with awe
There is no Ortega,Suker,Zamorano,Shearer,Ronaldo,Zidane,Delpiero,Hagi,Bergamp anymore just roleplayers everywhere
Henry Moore
OP is a moron, it's the same for every single sport as it has developed over the last century
In hockey, as well, you have far less hyper-dominant super-star players ala Gretzky and Lemieux because the defense, goaltending, and the average player has drastically improved in quality. Play any top team from the 90s in soccer against any equivalent top team in the 10s, and they would probably draw or have a losing win ratio against them
Sebastian Reyes
i suppose its more competitive/balanced?, I mean if back in the day lets say, defenders were not as good as the average now then the stars werent that great, they were just much better to the defenders in comparison
Blake Reed
>this nostalgiafagging We've seen 15-20 strikers who are better than Suker/Zamorano in the last 6 years
Angel Mitchell
>muh total football
This is why there was no Cruyff sticky
I bet you worship Schiller's ideal ancient Greek "everyman" who was both capable of being a tradesman and leading in the political sphere, you romantic cunt
Cooper Price
Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Owen, Henry, Nistelrooy, should I go on?
Ethan Russell
If you made this about English football I'd agree. More teams need to look towards the future of the sport and start building homegrown talents with modern tactics rather than looking across the borders so much
Jason Lewis
2006 was the last tournament filled with huge stars. It was the time when Italy, France, Brazil all died.
James Gutierrez
Why would it get worse if the talent pool hasn't shrunk and training methods and rigour haven't declined? I think there's just more parity now so the best players can't show off as much.
Ethan Kelly
Objectively skills have gotten better. Just look at how low tier teams played ten years ago. Even bumfuck countries like Iceland have players with decent ball control now. You just got used to a certain standard and it's harder to see what players excel from that baseline, that's all.
Gavin Peterson
How to fix football in 4 easy steps >stop the game clock during stoppages of play >to compensate for this reduce game time 2 x 40 minutes and no injury time >implement video reviews. All goals, penalties and cards are automatically reviewed >give coaches 2 challenge flags per half. Get your flag back with a winning challenge
Jonathan Turner
>Owen >being even remotely comparable to Suarez, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, Lewandowski etc classic nostalgiafagging
Ryan Sanchez
There are so many more names that it would actually be embarrassing to name them all. This list is gold already
Logan Cox
when i see italy team i just cry from del piero, vieri, totti to eder and zaza
Luke Adams
what made players have some variety was the ability to bend and manipulate the ball due to its weight. Nowadays modern balls are light and do not stick to the foot as well as before. So both dribbling skills and free kicks suffer from originality as pacebabbies and le knuckleball dominate the light slick ball era.
Julian Jones
tbf you listed overrated shitters like Agüero and Zlatan.
Logan Collins
>that one time when just Italy had Totti, Vieri, Del Piero and Inzaghi
Samuel Nelson
Why didnt england demolish Whales with a much larger talent pool and "prem ear ligue" training methods?
Benjamin Moore
Bosman killed the small league's that's for sure
Lucas Collins
This so much m9. Just look at the state of defences in European football- teams are shelling out £20m+ for hacks like Baba Rahman & Eric Bailly coz there aren't any better options. Don't even get me started on centre forwards
Gavin Morris
Aguero and Zlatan managed to get 20 league goals in a season.
Owen never did
Bentley Bennett
He definitely was better than Muller or Benzema
Landon Stewart
Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, Neymar, Lewandowski are literally better than any of the players in your pic, i shit you not
Hunter Clark
Does anyone remember Portgual winning a World Cup with the faggot that is Ronaldo? Nope, me neither. >inb4 USA never wins anything I live in the USA, but am from Argentina.
Jaxson Wood
I agree, 2006 World Cup was an end of an era. 1996-2006 was a truly entertaining time for this sport, a lot more extining matched than today but not as tactically and defensively retarted as football during the cold war.
Just compare 1998 World Cup with 2010. 2002 world be just as great but referees ruined it by eliminating some legendary teams. Even France got refballed against Uruguay back then, nobody seems to remeber that.
Some people loved 2014 World Cup but it was only great during group staged + 7-1. Rest of the knockout stages was typical boring, tactical defensive 1-0 piece of shit games.
Noah Perez
Cruyff eventually got a sticky though
Ryder Long
in their respective teams?hell no
I know I will get a lot of shit for this but even Ortega>Messi skillswise
Zachary Cooper
tactics and organization have improved immensely.
football in general and leagues in particular go through cycles, when you start breeding superb forwards then opponents have to breed superb defenders and improve tactics to adapt. The opposite also happens.
Parker Ortiz
>I know I will get a lot of shit for this but even Ortega>Messi skillswise You will not get any shit because shitting on someone clearly mentally handicapped is wrong.
Adrian Mitchell
you might be on to something, 2006 WC was the first tournament to implement new ball technology and it was around that time that general feel and style of football changed from the turn of the century style to the modern style.
Lucas King
meant for
Jacob Morris
skill is actually better today because most pro players these days are freestylers which means better ball control.
Daniel Mitchell
We were much better thats for sure
David Watson
I think it's because fitness levels are a lot better nowadays
The lads who stood out took care of themselves and had more time to pull off skills and things
Nowadays everybody is super fit and efficiency is valued far more than ever. Look at Ronaldo for example and how he has changed his game
Leo Campbell
>owen better than müller no wonder you english cucks overrate your team the whole time
Turkey, Romania, Sweden, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Serbia/Yugoslavia, Czech Republic all had a lot, lot better teams back then.
Joseph Peterson
Where is Muller's ballon d'or mate?
Prime Owen was lethal
Jace Adams
No just no
Nolan Martin
Nowadays, the moment a 18 year old shows any kind of promise, clubs like Real, Chelsea, the Manchester clubs, etc buy him, put him on a one billion yuro p/w contract and that's it. The player is already living the dream while being 10 years away from his prime age, no need to keep improving. Why do you think extremely talented players like Sterling went from tearing shit up at Liverpool to doing absolutely fuckall at City overnight? The league didn't change, his skill level didn't change, it's just that he doesn't need to keep trying when he's already earned the big moneys. Same thing happened to others, same thing will happen again to, say, Sané if City get him.
Jacob Gutierrez
you mean from 2008 where he was actually influential in a match compared to now where he just stands around waiting for a cross
Hunter Lewis
>muh ballon d'or well, tell me how many euro/world tournaments owen won
No doubt most ABMs would consider it a Mickey Mouse trophy, but still.
Jordan Rodriguez
Japan was better back then IMO
>you now remember Hidetoshi Nakata
Charles White
2008 Spain was way more fluid.2010 was more stable.
Ethan Wright
Iniesta is god like and probaly would have been the best player of his generation if he was born 10 years ago.This generation would rape in a match the 2002-2004 teams
Hunter Butler
Still shit results in international matches.
Aaron Hall
uh, so nothing changed?
Jaxon Morris
At the core, yes.
But they had more flair in the past.
Brody Anderson
Especially this one. If they win it doesn't even count
Blake Torres
Can you please take a look at a 19 year old Messi clowning Cannavaro? Cannavaro won the Ballon d'Or that year.
Zachary Moore
Eh, it's still a Copa América, Messi hasn't won any silverware for the actual NT and he's the best player in the world, he needs to become legendary with at least an international title, his team is still stacked with amazing players and they haven't won anything after all these years.
>He was retiring already!
Josiah Bailey
Cannavaro lost form after 2006 WC, 2006-2008 he was a shadow of his former self despite 2 league titles with RM. Same with Roberto Carlos
Caleb Nguyen
Nostalgia fags BTFO.This without mentioning that players like Xavi or Iniesta pobably are the best in their position historically
Jose Scott
Undeservingly so. Ronaldinho should have won that year. Everyone makes someone look stupid Messi isn't special
Blake Jackson
>But they are from the last generation! >This gen is shit, SHIT!
Benjamin Nelson
BTFO because 33 year old Cannavaro could not adapt to a new league after a tiring World Cup? Don't you remember how terrible Thuram was in Barca?
Isaiah Lewis
What about multiball ?
Ryan Peterson
>his team is still stacked with amazing players and they haven't won anything after all these years. Argentina lacks the midfield that is needed to win in current football.That is why both Spain and Germany have dominated the last couple of years at a national level.
Nathaniel Rivera
Explain this picture Is there an underlying joke ?
Jack Russell
Penalties should definitely be reviewed. Challenge flags are a stupid idea though