Im confused, how did it take so long for long ball to become so irrelevant? When I watch games from 2003 every team just lobs the ball up over and over.
Im confused, how did it take so long for long ball to become so irrelevant? When I watch games from 2003 every team just lobs the ball up over and over.
I think the standard of pitches have played a huge part in the evolution of the game. Even in the early days of the PL, pitches were boggy marshes throughout winter. A neat, tidy passing game would be nigh on impossible to play because of all the bobbles and inconsistencies in the pitch. A ball hoofed from defence up to attack takes those variables out of the equation.
Now pitches are smooth all year round, there’s less need to go route one because that sorter passing game is easier to play and isn’t going to be interrupted by divots & puddles and the like. This is also probably a reason why Spain became the birthplace of Tiki-Taka, because it’s got an ideal climate where it rains just enough for pitches not to dry out, but not too much that they become sodden.
Finally, the most important factor. If you’ve ever played on shit pitches week in, week out, you know from bitter experience how dangerous it is trying to play out from the back - one divot, the opposition nab it, and next thing you know they’ve got a corner.
I’ll always remember something my manager insisted on when I was playing youth football, maybe 30 years ago, that I disagreed with then and has aged even worse.
Never play a throw in backwards.
The game back then was very much modelled around gaining territory. Working the space, playing the ball back to find new paths and switching the play we’re not really in the agenda, it was all about keeping the ball up the other end.
Admittedly I played for the worst team in the league and it was on recreational pitches, both of which undoubtedly contributed to that approach, but it was something you’d see from professional teams too.
Same here - it was like blasphemy if you threw a throwin backwards and the coach would whistle and stop to berate you
This is the correct answer.
90s pitches were rough. Even by late October. Whenever an international break was upcoming the groundstaff would be getting ready to put proper work in.
Also the ball seemed heavier back then? Or is it just me seeing it that way?
no. always had the same weight. you can YouTube it, there is a good video explaining it. it did absorbed more water tho so it could become a bit heavier, but not in the 90s, that’s some 60s shit
Huge answer, this should be top. Pitches at the top level are a big percentage weaved artificial, to prevent boggy pitches. You won’t get that swamp level that we used to get, so had to often either avoid the midfield entirely, or just get it wide and get it into the middle late.
This helped a bigger striker, or a faster striker (or 4-4-2, big man little man).
This was particularly appropriate in England, with the huge changes in seasonal weather and levels of rain, with the poor type of grass too. Literal swamp pitches. Growing up, there were games called off because half of the goal mouth was underwater. Can’t play high press, high speed passing through that.