Argentine legend Gabriel Batistuta spoke about modern football tactics in an interview.
Batistuta said: “Coaches nowadays are constantly looking for ways to exploit or confuse opponents. Strikers like Batistuta or Christian Vieri from the past would stand firm in the penalty area and dominate that space in a certain way. But this type of striker no longer exists today. Modern forwards move around everywhere, and they don’t even use traditional numbers anymore, which makes the game more complicated.
However, these are not the reasons why I grow tired of football. There are other things that frustrate me about continuing to follow the sport, but these issues are mostly off-field factors.
Of course, part of the reason lies in football itself. For example, when I talked to friend today, I mentioned that all teams now play almost the same way: they like to build up play from the goalkeeper, then make around 20 short passes near the penalty area, while the opponent waits for the chance to counterattack. But in the end, the attack often ends with a long ball – something that could have been done at the start to keep the opponent’s attackers away from dangerous areas.
But this is modern football – the model that Pep Guardiola made successful. As humans, we always try to imitate successful methods, and right now this approach seems to help you win games. I don’t fully agree with it.”
