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.
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