Zedie wrote:Sims wrote:It's in a better state of quality than it was 2/3 years ago
There's only 3 worldclass STs in the game. Football is on suicide watch
This was in 2016. I this was appropriate to put a timestamp on things. Football as a community game died a long time before Zedie's statement was made, this is moneyball now, teams like Juventus releasing four kits this season with three of them being featured with white predominantly on the shirt.
In the three years since this statement. In world football. We have pretty much the same crop of strikers with the single addition of Mbappe to that list. He's obviously a massive, world level player, but a flawed player. Cannot play with his back towards goal as a striker at all yet.
This sums up the next generation of talent really. Fast, great skills at times, but no decision making or discipline whatsoever.
The only consistent elite teams in football are Liverpool, Manchester City and to an extent Juventus. Every other elite team are a expensive, hot mess live infront of a soap opera we call 'Social Media'.
What prompted me to bump this thread was watching Barcelona yesterday who lost pathetically to Levante 3-1 and they showed issues very reminiscent to what we have seen at Arsenal. Messi has carried the team for at least 2 of the last 3 years and not one player can even get remotely close to not only his level but even to replace rudimentary top class talent like Rakitic to add some much needed refreshment in their midfield. They buy Frenkie de Jong who is slow on the ball and a clear DPL over the true quick footed creative playmaker with the physical attributes to consistently penetrate in the final 3rd along with being able to cover enough ground to maintain possession in central areas for 90 minutes. That type of player isn't going to emerge in this dull, sanitized, athlete centered version of the game we see today so easy and 'la masia' ain't producing one it seems like either!
I'm sad because i want to see players like this again as we did abundantly in the 90's and early 00's. The world want to see it!
Despite all these glaring issues their team is still comfortably one of the 3 best teams in Spain a long, long way ahead of everyone else. Also yes, they are still one of the favorites for this years Champions League because so few teams in Europe are near their level and they still have Messi. This is a very similar story in every other league around Europe, there the few 'elite' teams have such an unfair financial advantage no matter how terrible the flaws are, they can always power through with money.
Football in 2019!