comment by Always NPE - 1,000,002 (U20804)
posted 2 seconds ago
Exactlh my point. And as you are right, no I didnt watch thrm. I have better things to do with my life to watch the travails of Palace and Swansea.

Mowed the lawn instead and then went to the pub.
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Good choice
I on the other hand wasted more than 3 hours of my life watching absolute atrocious football by all 4 teams

there is a debate that you could argue that it is improvements in defences that have resulted in the changes.

If you ask the question whether football is as entertaining now as 20-30 years ago, I would say no.

Spurs were the 5th best side from 2005-07 under Jol

We would not get near the current top 6 with the sides we had then

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Stalteri, Chimbonda, Lee Young-Pyo, Teemu Tainio, Anthony Gardner, Andy Reid, Michael Brown, Mido, Zokora, Ghaly, Davenport all played their part

NOSTALGIA.

comment by RonAlvinho - Victoria Concordia Pathetic (U6117)
posted 2 minutes ago
NOSTALGIA.
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Not what it used to be

I always look back to Arsenal.and United 97 to 99 when I think of the best sides, whichbis nostalgic really

They accrued points those seasons that would not get within a sniff of a title now, and most of the sides in the PL those years were an absolute shambles

HRH I always think points in a season shared out means it is a competitive league. Sometimes winning the league with 75 points is more hard then winning the leaegue with 90 points as the competition is high.

As a Man Utd fan I know our 07-08 side were much better then our 98-99 side. That Portsmouth game we were robbed and thew everything at them probably cost us a treble.

I remember a game that we beat Newcastle United 6-0. In the 1st half we had so many chances but it was 0-0. 2nd half we scored 6 and missed about 4 good chances but the 1st half we created far more which is scary the level we played at in certain games.

I think our 07-08 side would beat our 98-99 side very easily if I am being honest as the level of speed and power went up as well as skill.

Not read through all the thread so apologies if this has already been mentioned. The biggest change has been the amendments to the offside rule, which has made defending far harder than it used to be and changed tactics used completely. It's virtually impossible to compare as a consequence.

As mentioned earlier the United 99 and 2008 team, Gooners 2004 and Chelsea 2005 and 2006 are easily the best PL teams of the past 20 years all of them good enough to have won the CL that season and be worthy winners..........sadly only United did.

But all worthy benchmarks

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 2 seconds ago
Not read through all the thread so apologies if this has already been mentioned. The biggest change has been the amendments to the offside rule, which has made defending far harder than it used to be and changed tactics used completely. It's virtually impossible to compare as a consequence.
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Great point that

I was watching a video of one of Sacchis teams playing the offside trap the other day (when any player in an offside position was considered offside). It's mad to look back at now and does make you realise a lot of defenders from that era wouldn't be able to do it nowadays as the attributes required has changed so much.

The Epl has definitely regressed even though, the epl clubs have easily outspent most top European counterparts for years now. The quality of players has not been the same as those in the 00s, when the English clubs were regularly competing in Europe.

The best players in the English league are also spread across 6 teams now rather than 2/3/4

Football has become more and more about how good an athlete you are. They even now give stats for how many km a team covers. Who cares?

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 7 minutes ago
Not read through all the thread so apologies if this has already been mentioned. The biggest change has been the amendments to the offside rule, which has made defending far harder than it used to be and changed tactics used completely. It's virtually impossible to compare as a consequence.
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Not missed much. 50% of the posts in here are from Hafi

Less kids are playing football, obesity is on the rise and yes the standard of players is definitely going down.

The change in the offside law has produced more goals so football is more exciting but less skilful.

Not at all. Football has got increasingly more advanced fitness-wise with more and more teams pressing and an increased emphasis on athleticism. That in turn has put pressure on all players to improve their ability on the ball to cope with the increased pace the game is played at. It's easy to look 'technical' when you can get your foot down on the ball and have plenty of time and space to embark on mazy dribbles and pick out passes under no pressure. But try taking a fizzed 30 yard pass in your stride between the lines while being closed down by 4 players either side of you, then looking up and playing a throughball while still running at full speed. That's what modern playmakers like Ozil, Erikssen, de Bruyne etc. have to do compared to their more 'technical' counterparts like Zola, Juninho etc.

There is not a single player in the PL with a genuinely bad first touch these days. Anyone who watched that MOTD 25 re-run of the first ever weekend of PL football would have seen that the league was full of cloggers and long ball merchants. Even around the mid-2000s you had average teams like Portsmouth, Sunderland, West Brom etc. with agricultural defenders and lumbering target men. Even someone like Alan Shearer looks like a carthorse compared to a technically-polished centre forward like Aguero.

Teams have got better at defending from the front with their attacking players leading the charge. So the role of a defender is no longer just to mark man-to-man in the penalty box, but also to play through opposition pressure, as well as play a high line to support their own team's press. These all require different skillsets so defenders these days are all-rounders who excel at multiple types of defending, rather than just the one as may have been in the past.

comment by renoog (U4449)
posted 1 minute ago


There is not a single player in the PL with a genuinely bad first touch these days.
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Romelu Lukaku

While I don't believe there are any current sides as good as Man United in 07/08 or Chelsea 04-06, some teams have progressed such as Spurs and Man City, and there's always the chance we can see very good teams to again rival those past ones.

There's no definitive top 4 as of today, like there used to be 10 years ago. You have 6 very good teams, maybe more, so could be trickier for one team to dominate as much to be seen as a really top team. And that's just domestically. Real Madrid and Barcelona have made it harder to win in Europe for the English teams thanks to world class individuals.

comment by Paulpowersleftfoot (U1037)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by renoog (U4449)
posted 1 minute ago


There is not a single player in the PL with a genuinely bad first touch these days.
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Romelu Lukaku
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His 1st touch is bad. His 2nd touch is a goal.