Has football ever been more boring?

summerisle · October 27, 2015

blue61 said:
Football in the mid seventies was sensationally boring for a spell as teams put their entire emphasis on defending. The game was a lot slower too.

I seem to remember four Derbies were 0-0 draws.

davek · October 27, 2015

The source of boredom in the Premier League is Manchester City. Personally, I've never known a club that is so much at the heart of the English game but generates so little interest. They numb me. It's not that I can't stand them or even dislike them. They just mean nothing at all. A big sky blue nothingness that's wrapped itself around English top flight football's face like a sheet of polythene, shrink wrapping it. My heart sinks when they're on live. I just cant tolerate it. Even their highlights I'll avoid watching. It's just a construction based on the triumph of the market in football. They're about as much a football team to me as Sony or Pirelli.

Ashtonian · October 27, 2015

Dont think the entertainment value has gone to be honest. Just because the manchester clubs were too concerned about not losing than winning isnt really a marker on the league.

Take newcastle

6-1 defeat to city
6-2 win vs norwich
3-0 defeat despite outplaying sunderland.

Considering these are just normal leage games involving a club neither here nor there, it isnt bad entertainment for the neutral! Id argue the only bad team currently is chelsea, but mainly because they arent playing to their best. Every other club goes for it in games and tries to win each week, no anti football teams left considering how the likes of stoke used to be.

GwladysStreetHero · October 27, 2015

Who's bothered about the Manchester derby like

Pacman · October 27, 2015

Saint Domingo said:
Media and social media have whipped up fan bases and owners to unrealistic expectations. 2 losses are a catastrophe, everyone should be playing a certain type of football, trying to prove you are a 'bigger' club than another is everything. All you get are teams paralysed by the fear of losing.

That is why we have drawn so many Derby games. The fear of losing for both sides is too great to risk winning. Both almost settled for a safe draw as soon as the second half started.

Entertaining players have gone out of the PL definitely, managers won't tolerate them anymore. We may never see the likes of Di Canio, Okocha, Cantona, Bergkamp, Le Tissier again. This sort of 'luxury' player now has to combine marathon level work rate otherwise they're dropped for someone who will close down space. It's a poorer game for it.

Just look at how Barkley is consistently talked about how he "can't defend" and how Naismith and Lennons "tracking back" earns them a place over Mirallas who netted double figures last season.

riddick · October 27, 2015

It just seems like most teams are going out not to lose rather than try to win.

Ourselves included. Two years ago with the lead we'd try to score more to secure the win.

toffeejack · October 27, 2015

i think about a decade or so years back, it was getting really dull. italian teams where dulling their way through CL and others were sort of following suit if i remember. maybe it was less than 10.

rbm · October 28, 2015

davek said:
The source of boredom in the Premier League is Manchester City. Personally, I've never known a club that is so much at the heart of the English game but generates so little interest. They numb me. It's not that I can't stand them or even dislike them. They just mean nothing at all. A big sky blue nothingness that's wrapped itself around English top flight football's face like a sheet of polythene, shrink wrapping it. My heart sinks when they're on live. I just cant tolerate it. Even their highlights I'll avoid watching. It's just a construction based on the triumph of the market in football. They're about as much a football team to me as Sony or Pirelli.

I totally agree. They're minnows on steroids. As anaemic as their washed out sky blue shirts.

The idea that just because a billionaire lavishes money on a no mark pissant minnow it becomes a "big club" is offensive to real fans.To me Aston Vila for example is a bigger club.

It's also absolute nonsense to claim that they outnumber United in Manchester. Rubbish. Most Mancs I have ever met are rags.
City are nothing. Just a rich man's plaything.

LinekersLegs · October 28, 2015

Still love it 30 years after I got hooked.

There are bad, boring games but there were in the past as well - it is a rare weekend that doesn't have at least one game that to me has entertaining football/drama.