| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? 22:06 - Apr 16 with 5048 views | TresBonne |
Starting to feel myself more and more bored after watching games as a neutral these days. Tonight & the Manc derby spring to mind as recent examples. (Granted I didn't watch the first leg as was playing 6aside me self)
Lengthy VAR checks, teams sitting in, can't remember the last thunderc*** of a goal that I saw. All seems to be getting a little dull tbh. |  | | |  |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 12:18 - Apr 17 with 1288 views | TheBlueGnu |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 11:57 - Apr 17 by PrideOfTheEast |
Stadiums look the same, everybody seems to play in a similar way, defenders and goalkeepers seem to have the ball too much. I wouldn’t say unwatchable. However, not sure it’s really for me but I tend to go more for the day out, so won’t bother me when we reach the champions league! |
Definitely - defenders and goalkeepers p1ss about with the ball so much - about 40% of every game is the ball being shuffled around at the back. |  |
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| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:14 - Apr 17 with 1222 views | TresBonne |
That is great. I still think the Championship and L2 are the most enjoyable professional leagues in the country. | | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:18 - Apr 17 with 1208 views | backwaywhen |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 23:07 - Apr 16 by Garv |
Declan Rice literally scored two of them in the first leg. |
Errrr Sanch on Sunday ? | | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:31 - Apr 17 with 1194 views | MattinLondon |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 12:18 - Apr 17 by TheBlueGnu |
Definitely - defenders and goalkeepers p1ss about with the ball so much - about 40% of every game is the ball being shuffled around at the back. |
I happened to watch a Match of the 80s highlights show on telly last week and the football looked so poor. I’d say most of the highlights simply showed the ball being smashed up in the air resulting in head tennis for a long time.
The games seemed to be played in half empty giant urinals on muddy fields. Awful. |  | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:39 - Apr 17 with 1181 views | Dubtractor |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:31 - Apr 17 by MattinLondon |
I happened to watch a Match of the 80s highlights show on telly last week and the football looked so poor. I’d say most of the highlights simply showed the ball being smashed up in the air resulting in head tennis for a long time.
The games seemed to be played in half empty giant urinals on muddy fields. Awful. |
There are some elements of the modern game I find pretty dull, but equally there is definitely an element of nostalgia from some for a version of the sport that wasn't actually a great spectacle at all.
The thing I struggle with in the modern game is how organised teams are out of possession. You have incredibly technical players now, but even less good teams are so hard to unpick, so it feels like there is less penalty box action to get excited by. |  |
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| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 16:04 - Apr 17 with 1099 views | VanDusen |
Thing that's really struck me about this season that is different from 22 years ago, is when were promoted in 2000 it was immediately noticeable the step up in quality - it's actually one of the reasons I suspect we did so well as more teams played football than the old Division One where sides would sit back against us Cheltenham style. This time I haven't really noticed much difference in the style or even quality of play between the PL and Championship - it's just an awful lot faster. | | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 18:10 - Apr 17 with 1017 views | itfcsuth |
Football is and always will be the most entertaining, emotional, greatest sport on the planet - the ability of players is absolutely absurd, especially at the very highest level.
My only annoyance with ‘modern football’ is VAR, not that the tool is the problem, it’s the tools using the tools that are the problem - the way it is utilised is a real problem. |  | | |
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| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 18:45 - Apr 17 with 984 views | heavyweight |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 11:31 - Apr 17 by skinnybob72 |
It's very noticeable that teams are reluctant to cross the ball - I assume because they are likely to lose it in a 50/50 challenge in the air. Chelsea got the ball wide so many times on Sunday only to stop and pass the ball backwards.
Equally teams seem reluctant to shoot from distance, even when things appear to open up, because again they will likely lose possession. So more sideways and backwards passes ensue.
It's almost as if goals don't count unless the ball is walked into the net. |
I heard the other day a commentator calling this ' horse shoeing' - played out wide then back through the defenders to the other wing - repeat ad nauseum . I, like many others find this over patient and painstaking build up a bit tedious at times. | | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 21:26 - Apr 17 with 939 views | DJR |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 11:31 - Apr 17 by skinnybob72 |
It's very noticeable that teams are reluctant to cross the ball - I assume because they are likely to lose it in a 50/50 challenge in the air. Chelsea got the ball wide so many times on Sunday only to stop and pass the ball backwards.
Equally teams seem reluctant to shoot from distance, even when things appear to open up, because again they will likely lose possession. So more sideways and backwards passes ensue.
It's almost as if goals don't count unless the ball is walked into the net. |
Interestingly, at the Anfield game, it was very noticeable that Liverpool were very keen to get the ball into the box.
Maybe there's a reason they are doing so well. |  | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 22:44 - Apr 17 with 902 views | Vic |
Yeah, looks like it doesnt it!!!! |  |
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| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 22:52 - Apr 17 with 887 views | TresBonne |
I ABSOLUTELY eat my hat here!!! Fcking hell!!!! | | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 23:11 - Apr 17 with 850 views | Vic |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 22:52 - Apr 17 by TresBonne |
I ABSOLUTELY eat my hat here!!! Fcking hell!!!! |
That was just for you. It was 'very good'! | |
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| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 09:07 - Apr 18 with 725 views | Churchman |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 13:31 - Apr 17 by MattinLondon |
I happened to watch a Match of the 80s highlights show on telly last week and the football looked so poor. I’d say most of the highlights simply showed the ball being smashed up in the air resulting in head tennis for a long time.
The games seemed to be played in half empty giant urinals on muddy fields. Awful. |
The game was just different. You rightly point out the rubbish facilities that needed three disasters to trigger change. Add in awful, heavy pitches, a heavier football and kit including boots and there you have the main reasons. Players were fit back then, but not to the levels we see now.
However, the biggest difference for me is that Premier League football is becoming virtually a non contact sport. Some of the animals that played back in the day wouldn’t stay on the pitch very long in 2025.
So was it better back then? No. It was just a different game, just as the chasm between the Premier League and the Championship makes it a different game now. I enjoyed going to football 70s onwards. Each decade had something about it.
The most dismal periods were the Ferguson/Duncan years and most of Evans’ time as owner where the club lost its identity and would have finished out of the leagues given the rate of decline and incompetence. It broke my heart to see it.
I like the rough and tumble of the lower leagues, but I want us to properly compete in the PL. The skill, organisation, pace and theatre of it makes it the place to be, despite the downside of VAR and the ghastly cheating. Cucurella - never forgiven. I’d have tried to rip his hair out if I’d played against him.
That we just haven’t been able to compete in more than patches of games is a massive disappointment, but that doesn’t stop the Premier League being the place to be. We will be better prepared next time. |  | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 09:28 - Apr 18 with 694 views | Mark |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 10:47 - Apr 17 by VanDusen |
The big difference imo is
a) it's always the same teams these days (yawn), and there is much less variety than 30-40 years ago. This is reinforced by the media no longer allocating coverage based on league position, but simply on size - look at the amount of Man Utd and Tottenham games which are thrust upon us compared to Bournemouth, Brighton or Fulham.
b) regarding Europe double this - a tie like Man Utd v Barcelona would likely be a once in decade event, not likely to come round next season, or potentially even twice in the same season now there's terminally dull group stages to eke it out.
c) also in terms of Europe, back in the day there was a degree to which English teams were seen as representing the whole country and thus to some extent club loyalty would be discarded for the neutral - also one of the reasons why it's astounding Liverpool were ever 'forgiven' for Heysel in a way that almost no other club would have been given how many dreams they ruined for clubs like Everton, Wimbledon, Luton and, yes, Norwich. Nowadays you're clearly just watching multi-national corporations out for themselves competing to secure wealth above glory.
It's not just 'fashionable' to say modern football is dull (some of us have been saying it for 25 years or more), it's the fact that there's no longer any realistic other way of interpreting how corrupted it's become and most fans who get up out of their armchairs can see it clearly. Even Leicester's PL title - the one bright spot that is used to shut up naysayers - is almost a decade ago and practically in a different era the way the money has even further destroyed the English game. |
I agree, and it will get worse as competitions are being changed and set up so the big teams play each other all the time, such as the Nations' League and Club World Cup. There is saturation coverage on TV for those willing to pay for the subscriptions and watch the advertising. |  | | |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 14:13 - Apr 18 with 549 views | Wallingford_Boy |
| Is top level footy becoming a bit unwatchable? on 11:57 - Apr 17 by PrideOfTheEast |
Stadiums look the same, everybody seems to play in a similar way, defenders and goalkeepers seem to have the ball too much. I wouldn’t say unwatchable. However, not sure it’s really for me but I tend to go more for the day out, so won’t bother me when we reach the champions league! |
This.
It’s all about the day out, the match really is secondary.
Remember when players took players on? Moan, moan, moan.. |  |
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