Today vs yesterday

It's a different game and players are trained differently. The old player's when I started watching the game had done national service, they trained on assault courses. They had incredible stamina, they could play three games a week, on heavy pitches with full on tackling. No substitutions back then and later just one per game.
Today's player's are ripped. They are thoroughbreds and are probably faster than the old player's. But I doubt they could play three games a week on heavy pitches against psycho defenders.
I don't think today's player's are better than the old ones skill wise. George Best and Pele were the best I saw. But not many games were filmed back then and only from a camera at a fixed angle.
To be honest there's nothing about the game today that I like compared to the old days.

Imagine the bottlers of a squad today vs Albion ’78…

John Wile played 58 consecutive games in one season, think it was 78

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Originally Posted by viaductbaggies

Was there any football before the premier league was invented in 92 ?
The way some people go on I think they’ve never been to a game in the good old days

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I stopped listen to Talksport years ago but was in a mates car the other day and Alan Brazil introduced ‘Aston Villa’s all time top goal scorer, Gabby Agbonlahor’. My mate, being from the North East was a bit surprised as he thought Villa had had better forwards than that in the past till I told him football in the eyes of Talksport and Sky only came into being when the Money league started.

Just about some it up for me.

Really enjoyed the Real Madrid Chelsea game last night and was a lot more reminiscent of some of the great European nights of the 70/80/90s. That said so much of the PL games are bang average, and well as we know only too well below that it is at best ok, at worst total and absolute dross despite the amount of money the players get and the number of overseas players there are.

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Originally Posted by mickd1961

My old man explained to me early in my football education that with the quality players the pace is not that important, they gain five yards due to what’s between their ears.

I wasn’t lucky enough to see Bobby Hope play but I saw Giles at Leeds matches with my dad and at Albion, he had no pace yet the opposition couldn’t do a thing about him.

I’d have loved to see Gary Neville or Carragher or Kyle Walker trying to deal with Willie!

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My fondest memory was when Phil Neal (Liverpool) got picked for the England first 11 the very week they came to the Hawthorns. Willie was gliding past him on the wing with ease and when he had gone past him, he was bringing the ball back to do it again. I can't remember Neal getting near the ball let alone touching it. Happy days.

Most teams today play a passing style - its all pass, pass, pass. For some, reason, you don't very often see a player taking on a beating a man with either skill or speed. I don't know if its because the defenders have improved so much in skill and speed they can shut down most tricky players or whether the computer analysts have determined that a short passing possession game has a higher percentage of success than a skillful dribbling game or a kick and run game so they train their players accordingly. And when they do try to dribble past someone, the slightest touch is penalized anyway and the game stops for a free kick. So on the whole, players today would rather pass around the man and maintain possession than try to beat a man with skill or speed. Its actually gets a bit ridiculous sometimes when a team breaks out of defense with a three-on-three break, the crowd roars in anticipation of something exciting happening, but they often get so caught up in keeping possession and trying to pass the ball around instead of taking the man on that they often end up eventually passing it back to their own goalie. So players these days definitely pass a lot better than 40 years ago, both short passes and long passes. I remember 40 years ago when a player made a 50-60 yard diagonal pinpoint pass across the field, every one applauded the skill and it was only the Giles of the world who would try it regularly. I watched the game between Liverpool and City the other day and the short passing was exceptional and the number of 50 yard pinpoint passes was staggering. So i think most teams of today could easily out pass most teams of 40 years ago, but whether a willie johnston would have much success these days is hard to judge. Its a totally different style of game and they seem to discourage the willie johnston type of player for some reason. Its sad, because a good old fashioned winger was pretty exciting to watch and willie was one of the best at it.

You would actually think willie johnston would thrive on a billiard table pitch without having his legs kicked out from under him all the time. At the very least. he would spend less time suspended for beating up overly aggressive defenders!

It's impossible to compare players and teams from different eras. Training methods, diets, life styles, mental approach, playing surfaces, rule interpretation, etc. are all so different. What we can do though is to appreciate the different eras that your side has been successful in and to not even try to make comparisons. For us we have the Ronnie Allen era, the Jeff Astle era and the Cyrille Regis era. to celebrate. Great memories.

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Originally Posted by boingy

My fondest memory was when Phil Neal (Liverpool) got picked for the England first 11 the very week they came to the Hawthorns. Willie was gliding past him on the wing with ease and when he had gone past him, he was bringing the ball back to do it again. I can't remember Neal getting near the ball let alone touching it. Happy days.

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Then when Neal played against Scotland for England Willie terrorised him and had him facing the crowd at one stage.
Remember going to Villa Park and Gidman was right back, Willie beat him on the outside, brought the ball back, beat him on the inside, brought the ball back, then nutmegged him and took him on the outside again, but he sliced his cross and it drifted out for a goal kick. The Holte End jeered, so Willie dropped his shorts and showed them his arse.

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Originally Posted by WBA1955

Then when Neal played against Scotland for England Willie terrorised him and had him facing the crowd at one stage.
Remember going to Villa Park and Gidman was right back, Willie beat him on the outside, brought the ball back, beat him on the inside, brought the ball back, then nutmegged him and took him on the outside again, but he sliced his cross and it drifted out for a goal kick. The Holte End jeered, so Willie dropped his shorts and showed them his arse.

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XD That was entertainment alright. He knew what he could do.