Usually Football, once a game of brute force, has evolved into a strategic chess match on the pitch. This journey of football tactics is thrilling, with strategies and formations constantly adapting throughout history. With their innovative ideas and iconic matches, legendary coaches have played a pivotal role in shaping the beautiful game we know today.
Thanks to a barrage of podcasts, a controversy has been sparked in recent months, instigating pundits and critics into a debate: has football become too mechanical in modern football?
There is no debate that football, as we know it today, does not employ current tactics. It has evolved more in the past few decades than ever owing to several different factors and evolutions in its various other intricacies. Buckle up as we delve deep into exploring the face of modern football.
Influence of Sports Science:
One of the most significant impacts of sports science is on player performance. Gone are the days of generic training regimens. Working with coaches, sports scientists design personalized training programs based on a player’s strengths, weaknesses, and physiological data. GPS trackers monitor running distances, heart rate, and exertion levels, allowing coaches to optimize training loads and minimize injury risk, a testament to the advancements in the game.
Sports science isn’t just about physical conditioning. Nutrition plans are meticulously crafted to fuel players’ bodies for peak performance. The influence of sports science extends beyond the training ground. Match analysis has been revolutionized.
The assistant staff spends hundreds of hours dissecting opponent tactics using video footage and data analysis, allowing coaches to develop targeted winning strategies. Formations and playing styles are no longer static. They are dynamic, constantly evolving to exploit weaknesses and counter opponent strengths.
This over-emphasis on data has taken away the flair from the beautiful game that once was so exciting to see. Instead, now the game has slowed down and become too mechanical and boring to watch. The fans quickly found their fingers pointing towards Pep Guardiola, who they blame for influencing the game for the worse.
But Is Their Anger Justified?
It is irrefutable that Pep Guardiola has produced significant results over the years for all the clubs he has coached. However, the evolution of his tactics, over time, has made the players too reluctant to show their skills and instead become replaceable cogs in a machine, as evident from the case of Joao Cancelo.
The question arises. Why is the world of footballing tactics heading down this road? The answer most fitting to this equation is that the business aspect of football has greatly limited the coach’s freedom to influence the game. Every season has become a battle for mid-tier clubs of the top divisions to keep the business aspect of football clubs afloat.
Marketing, the transfer market, and player wages have severely pushed back the tactical freedom for coaches, who rely on risk-mitigating tactics. The hunger for winning has gone, except for one or two players, now and then.
The Flip Side of the Coin
However, on the flip side of the coin, Pep’s Manchester City, for the first couple of seasons, the football his team played was much more fluid. To counter Guardiola’s tactics, bottom-table teams relied upon low blocks and sitting deep over the years. This, in turn, has forced the hand for Pep to adapt to a slow, much more calculated, mechanical style of football, dissecting the stubborn low blocks, looking to find or create the spaces between the lines.
Although Liverpool and coach Jurgen Klopp were not on the receiving end of the stick, for the alleged mechanical playstyle and tactics, Klopp’s Geggenpressing monsters can be attributed to forcing the hand for teams to sit deep. Klopp always had a much more direct attacking style of football, having no issues with relying on counter-attacks occasionally.
This need for the low-tier teams to survive against their outmatched counterparts has been another factor in football’s decaying flair.
Influence of Social Media:
Another piece to solving this puzzle of modern football is the media and its role in sensationalizing mediocre talent. Every person with an online social media account can change or build a narrative. This prerogative was only enjoyed by corporate media channels and prominent newspapers not long ago.
During the COVID season, many youngsters got to make their way into the first teams of their respective clubs. Amad Diallo, Ansu Fati, Riqui Puig, and Franciso Trincao, excited by fans and media alike, become celebrity talents overnight, with nothing to show for it, at least now. The promise of flair and an exciting talent showcase from such wrongly hyped players just kills the fun of the beautiful game for fans. These fans are left with a bad taste from players they had come to expect so much of.
Is It Not a Fair Game for Players?
It would be unfair to put all the blame on players. Social media has cut the distance between fans and players, who now can directly get to the players, affecting them mentally. This cannot be discarded as an underlying factor of volatile performances from players of such great promise.
Two players who instantly pop under the radar for this discussion are Richarlison and Vinicius Junior. Richarlison, appearing in an interview himself, opened up about his mental struggles post-2022 World Cup and how such a violent fall from such a euphoric high of reaching a World Cup quarterfinal had affected him mentally, nearly pushing him to the verge of ending his own life.
Parallel to this, Vinicius Jr. has also been the subject of racial abuse in stadiums, primarily online, by trolls who hide behind nameless, faceless accounts. He opened up about how it affects him and his focus on and off the pitch, sparking a sense of empathy and concern among the audience.
Officiating technology:
Over recent years, the evolving nature of officiating technology has also become part of football’s latest controversies. VAR and its decisions have come under the radar for all major leagues and tournaments, with fans, critics, and pundits speculating on its fairness and the recurrent theme of long pauses by VAR before concluding.
In all its essence, VAR has killed the game’s joy. Players often look dismayed at the decisions. The fraction of inches call offsides, the weirdest analyses call handballs, and the most painful ones. Players being reserved are often reluctant to celebrate scoring a goal because VAR may rule that the goal should not be standing after any number of minutes.
The pure ecstasy and joy of celebrating a goal has been lost to the intervention by, arguably, the overwhelming inclusion of technology. The technology needs to be fully autonomous depending on those who operate it; hence, the analyses are subjective and possibly prone to biases.
Therefore, the debate, for fans and pundits, remains whether the problem is the technology itself or the people operating it.
Brands and Marketing:
Brands and marketing have also become a significant and undeniable part of the footballing ecosystem. Usually, brands are fighting for shirt sponsors and splurging ridiculous sums. It is basically to secure the eye-catching spot to tap the potential millions of viewers at any given time.
Over the last couple of years, Adidas, Nike, and Puma have undeniably seismically affected the mechanics of the footballing business. The revenues have risen exponentially, bringing me back to my previous point. For some clubs, the business aspect is much more crucial than the footballing aspect.
Another observable phenomenon influencing young players is video games, namely FIFA, now FC 24. Young players take ratings too seriously and are often visibly upset in advertisements. The desire to be more appealing in video games has passed the desire to deliver on the pitch for some.
Multimillion-dollar brand deals at young ages have affected the focus on the pitch. It has shifted towards the glitz and glamour off the pitch. Some even view themselves more as celebrities and superstars and less as players.
Wrapping It Up:
The beautiful game has changed drastically over the last 20 years. Still, the craze and the love for football keep the fan glued to the screen. Also, it keeps them eager for the next dose of 90 minutes of pure entertainment.
