Is the game gone?

‘Game’s gone.’

A phrase we hear more and more across the terraces and football social media etc. Whether slightly tongue-in-cheek or said with deadpan seriousness, there is an acceptance among football supporters that the game isn’t - and will never again be - what it once was when we first started watching, regardless of what era that might have been.

So, what have been some of the changes our sport has gone through? And has it just snuck up on us, or has it been more of a gradual change over a number of years?

Sounds like it’s time for a Football Musings investigation.

One of the main sticks that tends to be used to beat the modern day game is the excessive use of stats to analyse the game, metrics such as xG, box entries and field tilt being totally shunned by a large number of your ‘average’ football viewers. 

‘Overcomplicating a simple game’ is a phrase commonly heard and read. There can definitely be an element of truth to this, the good old ‘beat a man, whip a cross into a dangerous area’ tactic will be an effective weapon for attacking teams for as long as the game exists.

But surely if all the top clubs put so much value in the minute details of the game in order to gain them even an extra 1 or 2%, there must be a good reason for it?

I think that a lot of frustration for fans comes from when they feel like they’re being spoken down to because they don’t perhaps see every intricacy of the sport. People, perhaps more so of an older generation, will be of the opinion that football survived for many decades just fine without all these different metrics, so why do we need them now all of a sudden? And there is certainly some merit to this point of view.

At the end of the day, football will always be a results driven business above all else. So, as long as things are going well on the park, supporters of clubs will lap up anything the manager says in their post match interview. On the other hand, if  they’re not going so well, then hit raging fans with some chat about stats and final third entries at your peril…

Antonio Valencia - a take your man on and stick a cross in type of winger

The English Premier League is by far the most wealthy and desirable league on the globe. However, the increasing influx of ‘tourist fans’ is an ever present criticism and the league may have become a victim of its own success in some ways.

It is very unfortunate to see the increasing cost of football driving away the traditional working class supporters that might have been going for years. Fulham seem like the most obvious example of this recently, with their fans up in arms when it was announced that some non-corporate season tickets for season 24-25 were going to cost THREE THOUSAND POUNDS. Even for London that’s extortionate, especially for a team that’s sub-elite (I do note they’re having a good season this time out).

This increase in tourist supporters has undoubtedly led to a reduction in atmospheres around the league, with many of the average punters who would have once contributed to said atmosphere now being totally priced out of going to support their team.

Unlike in Scotland, matchday ticket revenue makes up only a small proportion of teams in the English top flight’s revenue, so surely they could turn down the greed to accommodate local supporters who have been with the club through thick and thin previously? Think we all know the answer to that one unfortunately…

I haven’t written this just to cane England, however, far from it. 

Italy and Spain, you’re next.

Both of these traditional footballing nations' federations have totally turned their back on supporters by moving some traditional domestic competition to foreign, oil rich lands. Just a couple of weeks ago, Inter were defeated by city rivals Milan in the final of the Supercoppa Italiana. A game that could have been hosted at some historic Italian amphitheatres of football, the San Siro, The Olimpico, The Diego Maradona, to name a few.

But no.

Well, where was it played? I hear you ask.

The instantly (not) recognisable King Saud University Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a capacity of 25,000. Wasn’t even full. What a monumental waste of everyone’s time.

At least the Italian officials would’ve made a few quid out of it.

All under the pretence of ‘trying to grow the game’. 

Sigh. I am getting pessimistic in my old age. Trying not to make this too ranty.

The venue chosen for the Italian Suppercoppa Milan derby final…

A tactic sure to raise the heart rates of those in the stands and beyond is the increasing insistence in building from the back, notably from goal kicks.

In practice, this is used as a tool to retain possession, rather than the more 50/50 nature of a goalkeeper punt up towards the halfway line. Clearly, it does come with a pretty hefty element of risk and almost every week there is a fairly high profile example of this going badly wrong.

Whilst this tactic has more pros than cons at the the top level of the game, where even the centre backs are technically superb, the same can’t quite be said for the lower levels of the sport.

Whilst it is somewhat admirable to see lower league clubs trying to play out from the back, you’ve got to assume for a fair number of these teams that realistically, attracting that level of pressure so close to your own goal will cost more goals than it creates if you don’t have the players to pull it off.

Often these teams are praised, even when it goes wrong, for playing ‘good football’. For me, and I know many others, the only style of football that matters is the one that wins games.

Of course we all would love to see our respective teams knocking it around like Pep’s Barcelona, but would take a turgid 1-0 win over a much more aesthetically pleasing draw or defeat. Any day of the week.

Most modern managers place so much emphasis on overall control of the game. The basic ideology behind this is that if their team has the ball, the opposition can’t score and they can sustain pressure and attacks.

It does feel like this approach can remove a fair chunk of the risk and reward aspect of football, that can be a lot of its charm.

For most wingers, the option that retains control of the game through possession of the football isn’t the more risky (but better to watch) option of taking their full back on and attacking the box, it’s to turn back and pass the ball backwards to their own midfield or defence.

Jack Grealish is the player who instantly springs to mind when I think of this, the creative goal threat we saw at Aston Villa has been altered by Pep, one of the greatest minds in the sport, into a total ‘control’ machine who now rarely contributes in terms of goals and assists.

However, I have no doubt that both Pep and Jack Grealish would point to their haul of medals if they were ever unfortunate enough to read this nonsense.

So fair enough.

I have no doubt that this ‘control’ element has led to the decrease in the number of teams playing with an out and out number 10 playmaker type as well. 

More often than not, they would be the most technically gifted player in the squad, playing in between the midfield and the strikers trying to create opportunities and pitching in with a few goals themselves. Which serves as a lovely segue into my next topic…

Is football seeing, before its eyes, the death of the maverick?

It certainly feels that way. Barely a week goes by on whichever social media platform you most favour without the algorithm providing you with a ‘Streets won’t forget clip’ of a ridiculously skillful player from years gone by. Compilations of Adel Taraabt, Ben Arfa, Berbatov tend to go particularly hard. No doubt you’ll all have a favourite example of such a player.

As football has become more physically and tactically demanding in recent years, it had directly led to the loss of these such players, as teams, at the top level especially, can not afford to carry a player purely due to their ability on the ball. On and off ball structure relies on all 11 players on the pitch singing from the same hymn sheet and if even one player is slightly wide of the mark in terms of pressing especially, it can lead to the whole system unravelling.

Hence, there is a lot more emphasis now on system players than individual flair.

This is not to say that individual brilliance is a thing of the past, far from it. But that brilliance needs to be coupled with an equally top level work ethic to run back as fast as you run forwards.

Players who don’t quite fall into the category of top work ethic can quickly get tagged as ‘lazy’ or ‘luxury players’. For an example, see Paul Pogba, probably the first player that title was made up for. Because he doesn’t sprint around the pitch all guns blazing and fly into tackles left, right and centre he has been left with both of these tags by fans and pundits, even though I have no doubt if he actually saw his running stats I’d be prepared to bet he covers as much if not more ground than a lot of his team mates.

Ricardo Quaresma pulling out one of his trademark trivelas - a maverick by definition

The more commercially driven the game becomes, the more matches the men in suits are asking players - especially at the top level - to play. It does not surprise me that we have had a lot of elite level players come out and say publicly that the workload is too much.

The football calendar is totally oversaturated and this needs fixed. There has undoubtedly been an increase in muscular and soft tissue injuries, directly correlating with players' ever busying schedule.

However, in their infinite wisdom, the decision makers in the game have decided to add in yet more matches. There is the introduction of the new club world cup at the end of the season, when players should be getting a well earned rest. There is no appetite for this tournament from players, supporters and even sponsors apparently.

Get it in the bin. Then set the bin on fire.

There is also an increase in the number of Champions League fixtures this season and moving forwards, with clubs potentially facing an extra four games when compared to previous editions of the competition.

Whilst I will admit this has made it a bit more interesting than in years gone by, I believe that to be just a byproduct of UEFA’s ambition to rinse its cash cow competition for all the euros it can.

In recent years we have seen this expansion of the international club fixture calendar work to the detriment of historic domestic competitions than can be lifelines for smaller clubs. In some competitions, replays have been scrapped to allow a bit of required breathing space in domestic timelines, but how many times in the past did we see a lower league team get a draw at home to a much bigger opponent, earning a replay at said bigger sides stadium, which would tend to come with much larger attendance.

This will have benefitted the smaller club two-fold, with the clear financial benefits to a split gate revenue fixture, but also to allow their players to play at an arena well above the ones they were used to, hopefully inspiring them to push on for their clubs and better themselves as players, with playing at these stadiums with more regularity the aim.

Do we all just now have to accept that football as a whole is driven by money above all else? There are certainly plenty of more local examples of clubs being the centre of their community and being a real force for good. However, entering the upper echelons of the sport, it seems to be all driven by revenues and ad deals, rather than putting loyal supporters at the forefront of thinking, where they deserve to be.

This well known tifo speaks for itself

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. There have been plenty of ways football has benefitted from moving with the times and ensuring it stays as, by far, the world’s most popular activity.

Looking purely at a technical ability point of view, the levels we see just now are probably the highest that they’ve been across the board. The addition of sports science, analysts and increased coaching development pathways have led to increased ability levels and tactical knowledge from both players and managers.

Long gone are the days of slightly overweight players floating around in the full time game. Pro’s tend to be incredible athletes these days, with nutrition and recovery coming on leaps and bounds due to increased learning and appreciation of sports science data, in order to try and gain that extra 1% that might change a draw into a victory. It also helps keep injury risk to as low a level as possible, even more important now with the aforementioned issues with the heavy fixture list. Football is in the fortunate position to be able to pay top dollar for people’s services, and players are looked after by professionals at the top of their fields.

The modernisation of football has also led to some great stories, the most notable being the likes of Brentford and Brighton’s ascent through the league system. Due to the clever implementation of data led recruitment, they have become a real force within the game and have become an away fixture that very few teams take maximum points from, which is quite something when you consider where the clubs have been in very recent times (Brighton 20th in the Championship less than a decade ago, Brentford being down in League 1 as recently as 2014). For the supporters of these clubs, Bournemouth would be another good example, to have seen the success these clubs have had in the strongest league in the world, must have been beyond their wildest dreams during some of the lower points in their recent history.

Looking a bit closer to home, recent years have seen some of the best attendances ever reached at Scottish league games as a whole, with over 4.7 million fans attending games across the four SPFL divisions in season 2023/24. Multiple clubs have reported record season ticket sales in recent years, which can only benefit the clubs individually and the league as a whole.

It has been especially encouraging to view the influx of young people into our stadiums, with so much enthusiasm and determination to get involved with their football club. From my experience at Tannadice, and I know this to be similar at other clubs, the fan groups that have been started up primarily by younger supporters have brought around a real uplift in atmosphere in both home and away venues, but especially at home where non ‘big games’ would quite often feel quite flat from an atmosphere point of view.

Whist football has undoubtedly changed over the years, for better or for worse, the passion people have for their club and the game as a whole remains as strong as it always has been. That’s why it’s the world's greatest game.

Passions and appetite for the beautiful game remain as high as ever

Feels right to end with a short sort of conclusion section, so here’s what I’ve garnered when going through the points above.

The game we all watched growing up, whenever that happens to have been, still exists. It does undoubtedly look different to how we remember it and as fans of the game as a whole, we tend to be prisoners to the nostalgia of the ‘better days’ previously.

I believe that the changes to the game have been fairly gradual over the years. However, a gradual yearly change can lead to a totally different look when the comparison becomes a decade or longer.

Whether this change is for the better, worse, or about the same is an individual opinion, but the sport needs to continually evolve and adapt to keep up with the increasingly demanding, impatient world.

I have no doubt in another 15/20 years the sport will look different again, and metrics or systems we’ve never even heard of will have become the new normal.