Brilliance of Barca hide improvements of English game

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The wonder of Barcelona should not make us think that the English game is back to the dark days of the 80’s and 90’s when route one football prevailed. That is what Wimbledon talked about and why they so lauded the so-called box-to-box players. The bewitching play of Barcelona often leads us to believe that the English game is in a worse state than it is.



These were more like runners than footballers, and would charge from their penalty box to that of the opposition hoping to connect their head with a long ball that had been floated over most of the field. The idea was that in the mayhem created by all these players trying to head the ball, there would be so much confusion that they might score a goal. Once that was done it was back to their own penalty box, kick every dangerous ball to row 52 and in the end emerge one-nil winners.