Here’s how I see the game.
Football is eternal, football is a story, and football is written by humans. The 2000s were defined by defence, attacking brilliance, and the dream of total football: Italy 06’, Ronaldinho, Inter, United, Zidane, total dominance. How do you win a WC? You score. How do you defend the best dribbling of the generation? You do not. From the goal of winning by expanding the pitch in the late 1900s, to winning by playing your style and dominating every game.
No matter the approach, every team plays to maximize their defensive capabilities while stretching the field for their attacking prowess. (To better explain a heat map of an attacking prowess, a figure in this era might look like it was attached to one player. If it was, it’s probably accurate. The attacking prowess today on the heat map looks a little more spread out. Why? It’s because the CDM position became influential when building out from the back.) This led to open space. Henry would grab the ball from the half and win most battles in the half spaces.
Italy could not be scored on in the 06’ WC, and Chelsea won the league by only allowing 15 goals in one year. Frank Lampard was Chelsea’s top goal scorer in the league for one year. He was a box-to-box CM. What to watch? Some of the best dribbling ever, look up the best attackers from this decade. People see the defence of the decade and its influence on the game compared to the attacking brilliance, and you might say it’s boring, but the entertainment value is at its peak.
Messi (photo courtesy NBC News)
From frontline snipers of attackers to the 2010s, LM10 vs CR7, positions, and winning by the strength of mind. It started strong, Messi in 2012, 91 goals, seemed improbable, Ronaldo by the end of the decade gained just a mere 3 CL, became top scorer in Madrid history, and outscored his appearances, he was the fire at the root of many generational matches, sometimes for the most important moments in a club’s history. Robbery. Neymar. City. Bayern. France. The start of a new way of playing. When you look at this, you might think football has become monochrome.
Teams playing the same way, players still being the most important part, and the cam disappearing, causing space, but with a wait time that may not be a sight for the neutral sports fanatic. Manchester United’s demise was a story written in hell. Okay, so though some of those things may be true, the technical brilliance across the board was brilliant. LIV mastered the long ball, Messi was Beethoven conducting commentary genius without knowing, Ronaldo as an ST and good distributors on his team is why it is hard to argue him not being the best forward ever, (Messi is the best attacker ever), let’s not forget the influx of managers who began to pass patterns as we have never seen before.
Football has always been free. And though it seems like freedom disappeared overnight, for guilty as they are, they only started to slow the game down because of this: they learned that the most effective way to win was to maximize vertical attacking opportunities and trust teammates only when they knew it was safer than playing for a cross.
Now we land in the 2020s. What has it been so far? The best way to describe it is by saying wingers and cms hope to disappear when players of the 2000s want the ball most. In 2020, Liverpool won the PL with decisive, quick, steady attacking play, and Bayern won a most deserved UCL title; they were entertaining. 21’ CHE won the CL through a slick ball to Havertz and EUROs, 22’ Argentina, Mbappe, sharpness wins games. 23’ Slower, Sharpness is king again (A Zidiane would rip teams apart to give context on the flow of games), 24’ City were really good and Euros, 25’ Barca carried a lot of entertainment value so did many, free play and sound decisions, freedom coaching this year is where they have really cemented their place in football’s future. It was heading this direction, then last year, it put on blinders to the trajectory.
Since last season, it has been about winning by adapting and capitalizing (every team’s strength now is how free their open play can be). That approach should breed hope. Football is not gone; it is preparing for total evolution.
Players now would rather have the power to define their place in club history rather than a moment in a season filled with many games. (The root of what slows the game and irritates the most faithful of fans.) I believe football will be played as if teams were schools of fish fighting head-on in an ocean. Teams will drive forward, be sharp and smart, and be programmed to be synchronized.
This decade has been the slowest-paced, or so it appears, regardless of the stats. However, young coaches with ideas of freedom and old coaches who are willing to adapt show that players will not pay for freedom but will instead exchange it for the opposition as a pre-match custom.
