Football Is Ruined 

The only correct way to play football is how 5 year olds play. There are no goalkeepers, and all 22 players run after the ball together.

I remember when Thierry Henry told a story of when he went out of position and scored a goal, then Pep subbed him off immediately. That's what you're getting when you join City. Under Pep, you have a very specific role and you need to show up every weekend and perform your dance. Very few players have ever gotten a free role under Guardiola; Messi and KDB.

Honestly, in recent years I came to the conclusion that lower quality football is so much more entertaining, there is just so much fun in watching disorganised teams play against eachother but I still prefer international team tournaments over anything else

There's a short that I watched where Grealish described the difference between when he played for Aston Villa vs how he currently plays for Manchester City. He said that when he played for Aston Villa, Dean Smith (who was his coach at the time) kinda just lets him do what he wants or what he sees fit on the pitch. Whereas with Pep he said he has to play a specific way and not move not of position or else he'll get a scolding from him. As great as a coach Pep Guardiola is, his demand for his players to play exactly how he wants to play can result in his players having no creative freedom on the pitch. That's why many of his players can feel like a totally different person between their current time in Man City versus their time at their previous clubs or at another club after they leave.

The discussion about "beauty in sports" isn't really unique to football. Basketball has this in the "three pointers ruined the game" discussion, while sumo has this in two fronts: "just pushing isn't a good tactic even when it wins" and "moving to the side may be legal but it shouldn't, it ruins the sport." I'm sure other sports has this "ideal way of playing," and critics who will say "they don't play how they used to."

2014, Nike, The Last Game. "There's no greater danger than playing it safe." A decade has passed and that value has been lost. Remember the dude with the turtleneck and his team of "perfect" footballers from that ad? That's Pep Guardiola and Man City. I miss the flair, the excitement, the freedom, the personality of the beautiful game. Football has gone from a game to a job. This isn't 22 players enjoying themselves on the pitch, it's two managers playing a glorified match of chess.

This reminds me of the old basketball adage: "The only man that could stop Michael Jordan was Dean Smith."

I remember Thierry Henry talking about this when he was at Barcelona

You said De Bruyne pretty well that one time in this video (Zealand - 9:51)

I think the issue with peps system is the way he changes players can hurt the team. Doku was brought so they have more dieectness in the squad when most of the squad is able to dribble past players before the pep effect

reminds me of that window in time between Italys 2006 world cup win and Peps first CL trophy in 2009, were almost every single team in Europe played the same 4-2-3-1

I think ange postecoglu could prove to be a manager that will change things around a bit, because tottenham have been playing football thats a lot more fun to watch

Did Z ever say why he's cosplaying Ted Lasso?

Cicles. I've seen old Catenaccio, Mourinho, Joga bonito, Pep's Tiki-Taka, Madrid Counter, Klopp high press, Simeone having success in La Liga and 2 Champions finals playing Catenaccio... Like any trainer would say, at the end players win matches. Good players and a system for them to fit in.

ngl, 2017-2019 man city at times had some of the most beautiful passages of play

Aside from home grown players, those who go into a Guardiola system should know what they're getting themselves into. Like was said, you become a cog in the machine. If that's all right with the player, then I don't see the issue. Would I rather see Ronaldinhos and Messi's pull a rabbit out of a hat? Sure, that's how I like to watch football. But playing chess on the pitch is also pleasing (for me at least). I enjoy seeing teams constricted and forced into a bunker. Everyone can talk about stopping the other team from playing their game, but if you're a team that has 55% + possession, and most of it is spent on your third of the pitch, that's uninspiring and just lazy. Ancelotti does what he does best. Guardiola does what he does best. And they're both at the top of the game. Given the choice, I would want Ancelotti because it opens the door for more player expression. But Guardiola is equally as impressive. Every sport has a tactical pendulum. I think that at some point it will tilt back, and we will have the same discussion, only with instead of the machine, that players have too much agency on the pitch and managers do not rein them in. See Hulk in Brazilian Serie A.

Guardiola is doing to Haaland what he did to Ibrahimovic. If Haaland was smart he'd leave and get his career back before it's too late. Haaland needs crosses, direct running, a completely different style to Guardiola. Note: only reply to this post if you know what happened between Guardiola and Ibrahimovic.

TLDR ,if you are not Messi ,follow the plan unless you wanna be left out of the match squad ,Ibrahimović is probably the most known example .

Guardiola is the man who got rid of Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto'o. It says everything you need to know about him. With that being said, Haaland is no Romário, he is "just" an exceptional goalscorer. Guardiola got rid of his deficiencies and kept only his main trait, leading to an extremely boring play style. IMO, there are basically two types of manager. Those who want to control the whole team and those who want to control the defense and allow players to attack the way they see fit. I'm not saying it's "do what you want", but some managers allow attackers to roam around, find pockets where they can be more useful, take on defenders, shoot from a distance, try a more "flamboyant" play style. Guardiola is not that guy. He is extremely strict, Messi was basically the only exception. He is a control freak. I don't like managers like him, even though it's a fair way to play.

Hey man I discovered your channel a month back, really like to listen to your takes while studying or doing anything. Thanks

Brazil 2026 will be crazy, relationism magic is coming BACK

Guardiola and his consequences have been a disaster for football.

Pep's systems are some of the most yawn inducing, boring styles of plays possible, especially against teams with any decent defence or tactical style. United completely negated City and only struggled when Doku came on and decided to just run at the defence and caused them tonnes of trouble.

The entire point of sport is for entertaining and passion,winning is not what sport is about.Winning fuels the business.

Halaand is a fucking ghost in big matches. He literally doesn't have a single goal in any final he's played for man city in.

Football is just abit boring now compared to what it used to be, I could be extremely bias / nostalgic though. But it lacks the characters that used to make it so much better.

Its the same thing as in MMA. Dagistani wrestlers are so fucking boring. However what they do works and is the most effective way to win.

Alonso seems to loosen the screws a bit already

I’m a Milan fan and lots of other fans criticized Pioli for not having a “tactical system.” This is because he’s far more similar to Ancelotti in allowing his players to make the majority of the decisions. I’ve always noticed the types of freedoms the players get in his system than other teams. Unfortunately he didn’t win enough so he got the boot. We’ll see what the future holds with a different manager coming in

Pep plays the most boring passing football, makes every player a soulless robot bar a few handful and still has to cheat to win. The sooner he goes to manage Spain or whatever the better.

Pochettino used to play in that way where individual talents shined through.

Funny enough, we already see this happening real time to Doku. Watch the way he dribbles from the start of the season to the fa cup final

Haalland got injured in BVB, in the last season. He was never like himself after that. He was NOT sent through with long-balls anymore and had to be a target more often. You can compare it with Torres in Chelsea. I just wanted to let you know. I love to watch Dortmund as a fan and analyse the tactics, also team management is something I look out for :)

Bernado silva is who really showed it for me at city, at Monaco and the national team what got me rating him was the way he drove with and dribbled the ball before picking out crazy passes, now he's waaaaay more safe compared to what ive seen him do(grealish too)

This is something being talked about a lot in Portugal among coaches these last years how our players were losing their street soccer styled creativity(look at all wingers we used to have) cause youth academies focused so much on tactics (pretty much creating robots) and some youth academies have gone back and gave creativity importance again. also coaches here been figuring out having these creative players are probably one of the solutions to break through these man city styled teams.

12:53 Ange Postecoglou teams are always the best to watch. His Celtic side played some of the best football I’ve ever seen. Celtic absolutely mauled Real Madrid at Celtic Park in the UCL for about 70 minutes but didn’t take their chances (actually missed open goals 🤦‍♂️) then Madrid took their first real chance. His Spurs side were great until the players remembered they are Spurs players and reverted to type.

The Man City vs Real Madrid quarter-final was a good example of what you’re touching on at the end, the system vs individuality dichotomy, and which of the two is sacrificed for the other. As best as I can understand Alonso’s system seems like it doesn’t sacrifice individuality in the same way it does in a Guardiola-esque system. On that, I cannot wait for the City vs Leverkusen matchup next champions league!

Grealish's outputs at Villa were vastly overestimated. He's not really doing that much different now. 7 seasons as a first team regular and he scored more than 6 goals once.

Premier League appointment viewing is when Olise and Eze are both on the field for Crystal Palace

At first score one and sit back was boring, now suffocating teams while constantly attacking is boring, the whole concept of boring is such a ridiculous argument. If your team wins it’s entertaining else it’s not.

I didn't follow la liga so the first time i actually followed pep's football was during his time at bayern, his football was BORING as hell and i absolutely hated it (until kovac and tuchel shown us worse), and he was getting thrashed by real and barca anyway so i didn't get the point of him killing every player's personality just to fit in his little fantasy tiki taka back then. obviously he has got that sorted out over all these years at city, his perfectly engineered machine is running better and better everyday, but still, it is boring and not fun to watch. you can kinda expect what will happen in the match just by looking at his team sheet, even the tinkers and fumble he will make when it comes to big matches.. don't even bring up the man city v arsenal game. pep vs little pep brought us easily the most boring "big match" in a while.

5:54 second ever ENGLISH treble., Zealand. Celtic won all five trophies, including the Champions Cup in 1967.

Football has lost its magic since pep gourdiola has taken the lead seat. All of the managers are doing nearly the same what pep does.

It's more that opposing teams put 11 men behind the ball against City. Grealish and Haaland played counter attacking football at Villa and Dortmund so had more space to run past players which is automatically more exciting

9:40 I thought this was a Strongbad Email for a second

My solution is simple and effective; i watch mid-table games, conference cup and if i could, due to time zones, i could watch Brazilian league.

The pilosophy is why i am an Ajax fan in the first place. Great attacking football , 4-3-3, and relying on the youth system. The youth players are developed according to the Cruyff philosophy. That's why the players that leave do not always succeed and that is why you can't buy and fit in every player. When everything clicks it looks amazing, if it does not it is awfull. Pep Guardiola is a great coach who took the Cruijff philosophy to an extreme. That's why we see great football, but if you take a look at the players individual it is not that special and not every player you buy will fit and flourish. People need to stop blaming managers, cause i think that is the real problem.

The machine requires sacrifices. You may not be where you want to be but you are where you need to be.

Fun Fact for you, Z: Yesterday marked 20 years since a team from outside the Top 4 of European Leagues won the UCL.

it gets my juices flowing when zealand says de bruyne

It's been a long damn time now, but generally speaking Pep's Barca were viewed as very aesthetically pleasing. Messi with his dominant dribbling, the passing and ball control of Xavi and Iniesta, the link-up between Messi and Alves, the high pressing.... The problem is that after that dominant stretch by Barca, most teams decided just to put 10 guys behind the ball against Pep teams ... to which I ask, do you think it would be smart for any of his midfielders or forwards to just start hucking 40 yard shots? No, they are going to keep the ball until they find an opening.

The reason Haaland seemed more creative at Dortmund is because he had much more space in front of him there, where he could make use of his explosivity. That's not gonna happen if you play for a team against whom everyone is playing a 9-0-1 formation.

I think Lionel Scaloni showed the world beautiful, aesthetically pleasing -- and WINNING -- football in the World Cup 2022 with Argentina.

8:35 i see what you did there Z

i have 115 reasons to dispute man citys title wins since 2008

Being honest, even though Pep's tactics are supposed to make City tactically superior, those limitations that are forced onto the players make the play too one-dimensional and easy for the opposition to read, creating situations where Ten Hag actually outcoached Guardiola.

People in pro sports forget they are in the entertainment industry. Manchester City is the perfect modern example of this. You have infinity money, you should be Galactico'ing it and playing the most pleasing possible style while you are winning. "The System ™" is only for underdogs and overachievers.

I saw somebody saying other day that If Pep were a kennel manager, the dogs would stop barking. I laughed so much but that got me thinking.

Dude, watch season review for 92-93-94 Man United. So many super fast and technical players - Kanchelskis, Sharpe, Giggs, some cameos from Beckham, Scholes... Cantona of course...

9:50 that's how you say it at least closer to 'browner' that 'broiner', as a Dutch person I cringe at the way most English speakers say it😖

when i play FM i go about things more like Ancelotti opposed to Pep. i want my ballers to go ball

I've noticed this in the Arsenal fanbase with Arteta sort of making our team like a machine in the City mold. Some people say he's stifling the creative freedom and making it less fun. My response is: "winning is fun"

Have you heard about Fernando Diniz’s Flumenense style of football called relationalism which may be the reaction towards Guardiola system. It takes Ancelotti positive vibe to the next level (Ancelotti is a hybrid of positional play and relationisn where the defenders maintain fixed position but attacking players have freedom to interact as they see fit). This is the reaction against the fixed positional play of European football where the system is to encourage players taking creative freedom. This has been adopted in Europe by Malmo FF which has won the Swedish league last season. If Malmo FF are successful in europe next season this may well spread further.

I started watching football very late in my life. For the first time i watched any football seriously was 2006 world cup and there were so many superstars at that time and i immediately fell in love with the game but also watched so many matches pre 2006 on RU-vid and one thing i can guarantee that intensity and entrainment of 90s and early 2000s football was unmatched. Maybe today's footballer are fitter and have strong basics that than the previous generation of footballers but nobody match the flair, but there were so many football players who couldn't pass properly and had no flair but they were good at what they were supposed to do and entrainment came from unpredictability of the game ,you didn't know what kind of goal you gonna see what magic going to happen. There was a time i used to watch lower divisions of football for just the sake of entertainment because of the atmosphere they had and entertaining long ball football 😁 because they can't play like Guardiola even if they want because quality was not there. In recent years Man City and Liverpool had great games in term of entertainment but all the credit goes to klopp and his style of play but these matches are not norm but exception. But every season there will be new teams you can follow for the sake of their entertainment value so enjoy football as much you can before it becomes boring but i hope that there will be revival of entertaining football again because we are seeing new coaches coming who don't try to imitate Guardiola but play their own brand of football.

I think the case of Doku is funnier. He looks like a gridiron running back with his very predictable break throughs dribbles

Nice moustache. Did you grow it for your Grindr profile?

we are currently seeing that it’s more important that players choose their happiness over the „better“ team. And Dortmund seems to be the best example with haaland, sancho and probably even more

Which part of florida are you from. All the Tampa talk means your bay area and me and you are the same age and you look very familiar, I'm from st pete and have been trying to connect the dots

and that's why we have to cherish every match Carletto provides us

Pep has destroyed the joy of football with his totalitarian control over everything. We need creativity and spontaneity. Same problem in American football with coaches calling in every play ... it's destroying the beauty and delight of sport.

Same thing with our coach at Gent, although he got results, creative players lost their touch. Everything for his system. But the football was boring imo. We won a title and a cup under his reign yet I'm glad he is gone.

Haaland is an amazing goal scorer but his ghosting in big games definitely needs to be addressed if he ever wants to be in that Balon D’Or convo. Guys like Vinicius and Mbappe will always be higher on the pecking order for that award because they always show up for the clubs and/or national teams. I do feel for him though cause of all the teams he could’ve went to he chose the one team that wasn’t going to play directly into his strengths .

The biggest problem in European football is inequality. You can pretty much guarantee, with the odd exception, who will win each league. And the gulf between the top clubs and everyone else makes it utterly predictable and boring.

It even took Sterling a few months to start running at fullbacks like he used to i think pep takes the magic out of players I think players will get the best of both worlds with ancelloti's philosophy it gives players especially the attacking players while maintaining structure with midfielders and defenders

According to me signing Halaand was a City decision. They wanted to showcase being a big club now so wanted to sign one of the best up and coming players available. Sancho they let go. Bellingham and Mbappe weren't going to go there and all the other potentially generational talents were either already signed or were already set to go to their places. So Halaand was the only option left to showcase the big club thing.

"Both can work at the highest level" - but one only works when you have the exact players you need, playing the exact role, with perfect accuracy. Look at Rodri: 4 games missed, all 4 lost.

Same happened to Riad Mahrez.

football in england is doomed since 3-4 years Guardiola just wants 11 zombies on the field obeying his rules and match plan

I think Roy Keane is trying to destroy Erling Haaland's career, like he did Erling's dad

at least football is less ruined than that mustache that clearly doesnt work

Guardiola is now trying to play Haaland in a way that doesnt work for Haaland. Haaland is a STRIKER, play him like one! No need to change it. The problem was not Gabriel Jesus, the problem is not Haaland, the problem os Guardiola wanting a STRIKER to not play as one.

Zealeandiam is the goat

The 9:50ish your pronounciation of KDB was really good actually, dueces

As a city fan, in terms of aesthetics, we can be as fun if not more fun to watch than any other team, but when a city game is boring, it's unwatchable.

NBA vaguely has this similar conversation abut 3-pointers, pick & roll, and shot diet.

No joke, just as you said "I think the something they're onto is that" (4:03), an ad for the game Destiny 2: The Final Shape started, with the narrator stating: "Corruption, spreading through the traveller". Even the RU-vid adtech algorithm knows 😏

man.. just imagine a right footed arjen robenn.. that one hit deep.

Please talk about Newcastle vs A League all stars It's Hilarious I promise you 😂

I honestly you need 8 or 9 of your players to be like pep wants, I feel like there’s room for a designated free roaming player. Tactically applied to spot holes and find wholes in defence in counters or just simply take a moment of attack if you opponents parking the bus.

Pep is also less likely to let his players be creative if they are having trouble staying healthy.

Only thing that can save football is south America spawning genius flair players like they've throughout football history.

I feel like Arteta has evolved in that sense. Seems like players have more freedom comparatively to express themselves and towards the end of the season he has taken more of a simeone approach of sit back and use Saka on the counter. But your point still stands

I've been saying something like this for a while, good to hear it articulated from another perspective. As a Villa fan, obviously I loved having a player as good and and as exciting as Grealish at the club I support and I was gutted when he left, but there was also a definite element of "he's earned a move to the big stage" so I wasn't too sorry to see him go. But I was absolutely gutted that he was going to City - exactly because I knew Pep would take a generationally exciting, dynamic, individual dynamo of a player and smash and bend him into a cog in a system. As you say, it works, it wins more, it's inevitable, but it also takes away from the game. I think the sport is better with Grealishes and Ronaldinhos and Maradonas (not that Grealish compares to the latter to in levels, but stylistically) even if Pep-style systems are more effective. I've honestly never bought the "how good is the football they play to watch" line that the pundits spout about City - the talent and discipline is phenomenal but they're usually a pretty boring team to watch, unless they're on a tear and putting 7 past a team.

thats why i love Brazil, brazil winning 5 world cups playing pure creative entertaining football with individual brilliance, brazil needs to win a world cup again and save football

As a team pep is right with winning above all else but as a fan it’s more fun to see players being more creative and maximizing their potential

Devil's advocate: All that flair and Joga Bonito is inefficient and gives you more turnovers than playing "simply and boringly" .

I miss the frog and the lamp

Honestly I would love the idea of a „fight of the night“ award decided by fanvoting for the most satisfying match of the day. Incentives the teams to bring the show back the football. I would love that

I thought I was watching Ted Lasso for a second

This isn’t really unique to soccer. In Gridiron football you have wild vertical pass teams and ground and pound teams. You even have heavy zone concepts on defense vs man heavy concepts