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Roberto Baggio a man after my own heart


Rashid
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Legend.

 

Italy legend Roberto Baggio launched a scathing attack against the modern game at the weekend, saying that all the skill was being replaced by pace and power.

 

Carlo Garganese asks if the former European and World Footballer of the Year is right…

 

Goal.com - Editorial/Comment - Calcio Debate: Is Baggio Right - Has Skill Disappeared From Football?

 

After this, the order of importance would be tactical, mental, and then finally physical qualities. This was the process that was used in most European countries, although not in all. England has always been an exception, something I can vouch for personally as I was released by Luton Town (who had then just been relegated from the top-flight) as a skillful teenager because I was told I was “too small, short, and weak”.

 

Ever since this time I have always held the view that, not only the English youth system, but English football as a whole, has totally neglected skill and natural talent, in favour of pace, power, strength and other physical attributes. Indeed this helps explain why the country has always been so dreadfully poor on a technical level.

 

While England has always placed physical attributes as the primary consideration when judging a player, other European countries, such as Spain and Italy, have traditionally favored the aforementioned technical aspect.

 

Sadly, the way the game is evolving, it seems that there is an inevitable process in place whereby the blood-and-thunder English way is becoming the norm throughout Europe.

 

“It is all much faster and more difficult now," blasted Baggio.

 

"In the 1990s it was more than the 80s, now even more than the 90s. It is the evolution of the sport and we have to follow it. However, one cannot criticize a player for trying a backheel during a game. Are we crazy?”

 

People that play today are - in most cases- athletes first, and footballers second. The desire to become quicker, fitter and stronger is destroying the game. All the skill, as Baggio says, is disappearing.

 

The classic ‘number 10’, the shirt and the position that every footballer growing up used to desire, is virtually extinct. The Italian national team exemplifies this perfectly. Over the years they have produced numerous world-class number 10s, the likes of Gianni Rivera, Sandro Mazzola, Baggio, and most recently Francesco Totti. At this summer’s European Championships, Coach Roberto Donadoni is set to employ a 4-3-3 formation, meaning that Italy will be playing with no creative support striker.

 

You look at the major teams around Europe, and many seem to favour a big, strong, man-mountain of a target man. Arsenal have Emmanuel Adebayor, Chelsea have Didier Drogba, Inter field Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and I predict that within five years it will be rare to see a top club or country with a striker who is below six foot.

 

Height is becoming important. A team with short players is liable to concede goals off set-pieces and crosses – thus once again the lumbering giant is preferred to the shorter, skilful player. Take the Chelsea or Inter Milan teams who are absolutely full to the rafters with 6 foot-plus machines.

 

Today, squads are also considered to be fragile unless they have two defensive midfielders in the middle-of-the-park. To be a good centre midfielder is to be able to run, run and run some more. A player like Momo Sissoko, wouldn’t have even made it into the semi-professional league in Italy a few decades ago, yet today he is being tipped by some to become one of the best midfield men in the whole of Serie A.

 

In modern football you can have the flair and natural talent of Diego Maradona, but if you have no pace, nobody wants to know you. Take Juan Roman Riquelme for example. If he was around in the 1980s, he would have had every top team in Italy and Spain queuing up to build their team around him. Riquelme is a genius, he sees passes that athletes like Sissoko would take 30 years to spot, yet he is unwanted because he is considered too slow for the modern game.

 

Former Spain and Barcelona star Josep Guardiola was a fantastic holding playmaker, but he had the pace of a snail. The player’s career can be split into two parts. During the first half, when football was still pure, he was simply world class and one of the best midfielders in the world. However towards the end of the 1990s, there was a sudden decline in his performances (injuries also played a part). The game had simply become too fast and physical for him, something he admitted himself, and Barcelona eventually let him go in 2001 at the age of just 30.

 

Of course there are always phenomenon’s who disprove this theory, but these are becoming rarer all the time. The best example of course is Zinedine Zidane, an old-school player like Riquelme, with very little pace or physical quality, yet who was far and away the best player of his generation, and was still sensational at the 2006 World Cup at the age of 34. The fact that Zidane excelled in such an era proves what a legend among legends he is. Andrea Pirlo is another exception, but even he has found himself in situations where he has been physically bullied, such as against Arsenal in the Champions League recently.

 

Baggio believes that the only place in the world where football is still football is South America, a continent where players are footballers first, and athletes second.

 

“In South America more than Europe they are much closer to the authentic spirit of football,” said the 1994 World Cup star. “This is why I adore Leo Messi.”

 

Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry are two excellent examples of the modern day player. Both, when in form, are world class performers, but ask yourself how good they would be if you remove the pace and physical features from their games. Some would also place Kaka in this category.

 

Wayne Rooney, over the weekend, compared Manchester United to the old Brazil due to the way the teams play. The difference is that the great Brazil teams have played with irresistible skill, technique and panache, while The Red Devils' game is at a high intensity, quickly zipping the ball about, and counter-attacking at a lightning pace.

 

I am unconvinced that either Ronaldo or Henry would have been world-class in the slower, and more technical/tactical oriented 1980s. On the same token you could probably find numerous players from that generation who wouldn’t have coped today – Brazilian legend Socrates is perhaps one.

 

The question is though – who would you consider more of a real footballer – Socrates or Henry?

 

Call me old-school, but I am sure that most football purists will agree that football was much better when it was slower and less athletic.

 

Harsh on Sissoko but what a wonderful thing to debate...

 

Football for me has lost it's magic and that is largely down to managers obsession with prozone, fitness and stats.

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Blimey - another of the Ruud Gullit, deluded, self obsessed, the "game/world is shite because i'm not in it" crew.

 

We have light bulbs and everything now, Robbie.

 

And I'm a childhood Milan fan, as well. Gullit was worse - in his head, he still thinks its 88 and the world revolves around him.

 

Good old Robbie Baggio.

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Baggio's just bitter his time has been and gone, the games as good as it's ever been! Hrash on Momo that as well there was plenty of "yard dog" type midfielders back in the glorious 70's and eighties as well.

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Baggio's just bitter his time has been and gone, the games as good as it's ever been! Hrash on Momo that as well there was plenty of "yard dog" type midfielders back in the glorious 70's and eighties as well.

 

Bitter about what? Being the best Italian player in history?

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I think hes correct.

 

Like when i watch the 1994, 1998 world cup again they are so much more "i dont know how to put it" but like the teams dont cancel eachother out due to tactics and super fit men niggling at the skilled players.

 

Likes of Bergkamp, Zola, Fowler, Zidane, Figo, Rui Costa, Seedorf, Petit, Raul..many more from the 90s fit into this category perfectly.

 

Like the change from 94, 98 World Cups to 02, 06 is frustrating. All about pace and power nowdays - explain why African teams are more successful.

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I like my technical players as much as the next man. But I don't share these delusions about football in the '80s and '90s. Baggio himself played in two of the dullest World Cups ever (1990 and 1994) and was surrounded by plenty of cloggers who just happened to be less professional in those days; in other words, they were basically unfit, which allowed players like Gascoigne and Baggio himself to prosper.

 

In international football, Brazil's World Cup win in '94 was the death of pretty football. In club football, the Italians themselves developed the kind of "mechanical" football we see today. But I happen to like the "mechanical" stuff. It's a team sport, not a showcase for show ponys.

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hang on i never called him a yard dog either! Bitters maybe a strong word but it's annoying all these former players who come out and say how better the game was when they were playing, life goes on. To be fair that world cup 94 when Baggio and Romario were the main men is one of my best football memorys. I think the football in general being played today is just as good though.

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I agree with Baggio completely.

 

I also think this is the reason the English national team is sho fucking shit. It's because football in this country is now mostly all about who can run the fastest and kick the ball the hardest.

 

Yes, it makes for "exciting" football. Yes, it makes for a good league with plenty of action. But is the football any good?? On the whole, no, it's actually mostly fucking shit.

 

ONe of the reasons I admire players like Peter Crouch; becuase he's a proper footballer. he has touch, technique and he has vision. But because he doesn't, you know, run dead dead fast and that, he gets no credit. But he's a better footballer imo than almost anyone at our club.

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and, more importantly, why fast players are far better than technical players in pro evo...

 

Yes which drives me nuts.

 

 

Like my mate is always Barcelona etc and i busted my balls of to unlock classic France but still his pace and power is usually too much for me even though i have Zidane, Platini, Cantona.

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I agree with Baggio completely.

 

I also think this is the reason the English national team is sho fucking shit. It's because football in this country is now mostly all about who can run the fastest and kick the ball the hardest.

 

Yes, it makes for "exciting" football. Yes, it makes for a good league with plenty of action. But is the football any good?? On the whole, no, it's actually mostly fucking shit.

 

ONe of the reasons I admire players like Peter Crouch; becuase he's a proper footballer. he has touch, technique and he has vision. But because he doesn't, you know, run dead dead fast and that, he gets no credit. But he's a better footballer imo than almost anyone at our club.

 

Berbatov is the best example going in the league, pure genius.

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Yes which drives me nuts.

 

 

Like my mate is always Barcelona etc and i busted my balls of to unlock classic France but still his pace and power is usually too much for me even though i have Zidane, Platini, Cantona.

 

No, it is because I'm class and you're shite.

 

 

 

You also failed to mention Gabriel Batistuta in your list of players. What a guy!

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Africans are fucking skilfull! So what if they combine that with speed and strength.

BTW Zidane is African.

 

Is that guy suggesting that Ronaldo (the cunt) and Henry aren't skilful players?

 

What a load of crap. Shit article.

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