Quote Originally Posted by upthemaggies View Post
They wouldn't be able to do that in 70s conditions. You can't play fast flowing football on a mud bath with a heavy soaked leather ball and not expect to get hacked down if you try and be a fancy Dan when the ref will wave play on. It would literally be men against boys, or like a women's international side getting destroyed by an under 15s boys team.

It's a totally different game now for better or worse. People always make these comparisons as if the only way to do it would be to magically bring a team from an old era into today's world with no modern day prep whatsoever, which is of course no more or less viable than doing the exact same thing the other way around.

What if the 70s Leeds team had all grown up in the 2000s with lifelong modern day training and diets, how could we even begin to imagine what that team would play like? Or you took Notts of today and had them grow up in the 50s smoking, drinking, getting into proper fist fights at school on a regular basis, knowing how to look after themselves, how would they get on then against the likes of Peter Russell?

Every era likes to pat itself on the back and congratulate themselves on arriving at the station at the end of the tracks at an all-knowing all-modern day town with hindsight and a sense of moral superiority that overlooks the entire landscape of the past and a future that does not yet exist, until the tracks are extended and a new era is built and the same old arguments play out.
Even on a poor pitch they would be chasing shadows IMO. The tactical side of the modern day teams game would have Don Revie et al scratching their heads in bewilderment. Not even the black board and chalk at half time would save him. The players pre match chicken and chips certainly wouldn't help matters even on a mud bath.

Like you say you need a magical time machine, often used in boxing comparing the greats of different eras. Ultimately unprovable and pointless but fun nevertheless.

Imagine if the best side of the 60s or 70s were transported to Anfield or the Etihad to play those incredible sides on an absolute carpet of a pitch? It would be a cricket score