This is going to make me sound old but

I'm convinced modern managers are their own worst enemies a lot of the time, and too much time is spent talking about midfield diamonds and all that ****.
Watch the videos of our seventies side and tell me that style wouldn't get us out of this league!
We had players who weren't afraid to express themselves, we could burst from defending our box at pace (not hoof ball) but a mixture of quick passes and players running with the ball and then catch an unorganised defence rather that the ponderous way we do it these days passing pretty patterns that lets opponents get back in numbers.
We had midfielders who would burst into the opponents box at pace daring them to put a tackle in without conceding a penalty and then usually getting a shot away(alright we all know I mean Ronnie but you get the drift). If we didn't score with the first effort we had players following in for the rebound. If we didn't go straight down the middle we had wingers who could take a man on and more often than not get a telling cross into the box, or if all else failed we had players who could hit a shot from distance. In short the opposition were never sure how the next attack was coming.
Alright managers had their quirks, they'd do things like play left footed players at left back and allow the backs to get forward in support whenever they got the chance (weird eh?)
And you tell young un's today that and they'll never believe yer
PS With that style of play you didn't get many complaints about Oakwell being like a morgue either

 

To be fair that team was the best I've ever seen but I agree with your general points. Attack well. Pass and move. Defend in numbers. Straightforward. League 1 defences are poor so if you attack with pace and width they crumble. Stop worrying about the opposition and take the game to them.

 

Most of the stuff you talk about was early 80s..but I agree with you good fearless attacking football, sometimes it worked, sometimes we came unstuck...but on the whole entertaining.

 

I agree 100%. Managers and those who run the game have turned a very simple game into one of complexity and science.

 

Yep fair enough, it just always sticks in my mind as the seventies because it was late Seventies that Clarkey arrived and it all began, but yes let the opposition worry about you not the other way round, let players express themselves.
It definitely didn't always work but you walked down to the ground with a spring in your step and a smile on your face in anticipation.

 

Usually full of beer!...and the pies were nicer!

 

its easy sometimes to forget how things used to be and start remembering games with rose tinted specs.You question yourself was it as good as you think it was,? thankfully theres plenty on youtube to point you in the right direction and confirm your thoughts.

football,for me anyway,was miles better 30 odd years ago,the atmosphere was also better and this wasnt just because we were going forward as a club,it was because the football could be exiting to watch,end to end with passing football in between..What do we witness nowadays? boring sideways passing thats what,with hardly anything worth getting exited about,its no wonder the place is like a morgue.

trying to make the game into a science is achieving nothing for most people on the terraces,all it does is give pundits on TV something to chew over and justify their (ludicrous) salaries.

 

Too much ipad, statistics, dna ***** for me. Were in the third division not premier league, horses for courses.