Watching the Spain game and it baffles and amazes me both at the same time. They aren't doing anything tricky or confusing, they're just passing it neatly but quickly and it leaves me to think why can't every other team do this? It's not like the players we have for example are rubbish, far from it, we have a fantastic team all have very good touch and vision (they're professionals for gods sake!) but not us or nearly every other team in the world except Barcelona can do it. Teams just don't seem to be able to pass and move like Spain or Barca, yet week in week out you see teams like Stoke constantly hoofing the ball up field for the hope of someone to score, yet they get many plaudits for grinding out results against the big teams by playing, let's face it, negative football. This isn't a dig at Stoke mind, they've done well to get where they are, but I'm sure everyone would rather see some decent football than punt 'n run. The way Spain play is so simplistic but so effective, other teams try to re-create it (Arsenal, Madrid and Man Utd for instance), but it doesn't seem to come close to the beauty of Barca. It's confusing how pass 'n move can be so much more difficult than hit 'n hope.
Pass and move, it's the fabric of the game, all the great sides have moved off of the ball better than the rest....Cloughie's Forest, Paisley's Liverpool Wenger's Arsenal and Fergie's Manure were/are the best examples of this in English football.
I would say that the continuity of the present group of players from Barca/Spain is probably the reason why they make it look so easy. Each players knows his team-mates and the areas that they will run into. Nigel Adkins is trying to do the same with Saints, "playing between the lines" to find space.
We are trying to play like this aswell(so are Brighton),ok nowhere near as good but still we're getting there. In Spain they start playing the ball along the ground from an early age so this type of football is second nature to them. Stoke don't play football.
Because they are trained to play like it from a young age. At age 7/8 in our country, players are taught to hit it as hard as they can and as far as they can, especially defenders.
I can't help but think the fact that whenever you are watching a typical Sunday morning match, at any age group, you will always get the bigger cheer when someone goes in with a big challenge and get's half the ball/half the player rather than two players simply passing it around, keeping possession and looking for the key pass rather than rushing the play. These new rules the FA are bringing in to push clubs to use there youth players will not help unless they are playing the right football. It will simply grow them accustomed to having a more physical presence than actually having skill on the ball and be able to make the right pass. It's as much about skill as it is decision making and looking for the right pass.
I don't think you can say Stoke play negative football. What annoys me is some people think there are rules on how to play football. Stoke play to their strengths and there's nothing wrong with that! They do play decent football at times which seems to go unnoticed. I'll give you a team that plays negative football: Brighton. Yet for some reason some people think they play 'the right way'. They're also a bunch of cheats who will get what they deserve in time. Lastly, it shouldn't be difficult but I think it's habit. I'm sure England will get there.
That's because there's nothing more pleasing than seeing a good, strong slide tackle with the players showing a bit of passion and commitment. Slide tackling is an art, not dangerous play. It's only because most foreigners don't seem to know how to slide tackle.
The game has moved on from the hoofball days and injuring people on the pitch,it's all about pass and move.
Slide tackling is an art to win the ball back, not to injure players. If you get the ball first, it's a fair tackle! You can implement that into a pass and move game. No-one is mentioning how the days of top players being honest has moved on. I can't watch foreign football as I spend the whole game tearing my hair out over all the cheating and players acting like babies. It's pathetic. That's one of a few things I miss about League One.
So true! One thing the english is do well is make good defenders I mean Phil Jones to me is the perfect defender and he's only 20. A well timed slide tackle can not only be as good looking as a gorgeous pass but also a lot more vital! And If I see one more person criticise stoke I will lose it. They have been in the prem what 3 years? And they have fitted in from day one, this is because they play to their strengths they know they can't out play the uniteds,arsenals and chelseas of this world so they use their own teams advantages and some robust but not unfair challenges. I think a prime example of a team trying to play nice football against top sides in the prem was blackpool and we all know how that ended. Until you really establish yourself you've gotta get down and dirty, and if you had really bothered to watch stoke this season or parts of last season for that matter you'd know that they can play some lovely football at times.
Yes I agree with you about sliding tackle and it being an art form.Yes I enjoy watching barcelona and other spanish teams but I just hate the diving they do,it's the same in Portugal. They only start doing it at senior level!when I played for my local club(14/15 year olds) here in the Algarve it was proper football no diving or anything but when you get to senior level it's just disgusting(worse than spanish teams).
Agree with previous comments about defending. We probably have the best defenders in the world. We just need to work on that midfield.
Guardiola's first result in Spain: Numancia 1 Barça 0. Ridicule from Spanish press. Three games later Sporting Gijón 0(?) Barça 8. Patience, belief, talent, a system. No magic, no sleight of hand. Belief, talent, patience, system. 11 tÃtulos in 3 years, no favours, political influence. Talent, belief, system, patience. Try it out in the EPL? YOU'RE AVING A LAUGH!! Bloody forrinerz dive, don't vey?
When trying to replicate that sort of football, it doesn't help if your own fans very quickly start howling and shouting when your defence has the ball between them and seemingly aren't looking to get it forward asap. The reaction from some fans at St Marys when someone like Davis or Fonte is on the ball is almost a disgrace. I watched Chelsea vs Bolton the other day, and Cech, Luiz and Terry spent a good 30 seconds or so just knocking the ball between them, waiting for an option ahead of them - and I didn't hear any negatives from the crowd. Likewise I think too many of us get too worried, too quickly, when we're on the ball and are being closed down. Someone like Xavi can often have three guys around him, and the fans seem fine with it - and rightly so, because he inevitably retains the ball and produces something. Now if other fans up and down this country are similar, and I suspect many are, then I guess it's not too much of a surprise that we often see more direct football in this country.
This one sentence epitomises what I call "the English disease". It is why our national team is slipping further and further backwards. Jdub - this is not an attack on you, so please do not take offense. I am travelling today, but I will get my soap box out tonight and explain my thoughts. The basis of my thoughts are simply that we coach our very young kids to win matches, not how to play football technically well. Every weekend I see it when coaching my under 11s team. All the parents and coaches willing and screaming at their boys to win the game, with no thought as to whether they are developing technically.
