Is English football changing?

[Danishfurniturelover]

I ask this after the excellent and exemplary Eddie Howe made his comments on the football league show last night about how teams in the championship mainly play with one striker up front now so as to prepare themselves for the premership.

Maybe if it has filtered down to the lower leagues and we will start to see youth teams at league clubs play this way and have a more possession based style of play it could increase the skill levels of English players and give us a better chance in future world cups.

Got to say I have watched Brighton a few times this season when they have played with one striker up front and sometimes putting the other striker out on the wing. They also played fairly regularly with 2 holding midfielders, a few of the visiting sides play like this also.

 

[Jordinho]

Or it will be about hoofing it to the big target man and having midfielders run onto the knockdowns. Not every team of course, but still far too many.

 

[Jordinho]

Just look at league two, the majority of teams have more draws than wins.

 

[milo]

I think that these things are cyclical and one up front will be the dominant formation in English football until someone finds a way to exploit the weaknesses in 4-2-3-1 and then that will gain in popularity.

 

[braineclipse]

If it's changing it's about bloody time isn't it?

I think we're ahead of the curve here (in England) producing some talented young players and focusing on ability on the ball over physical development.

 

[Mumorn]

We are starting to produce good talent, talent I doubt we will appreciate because they are English.

 

[chancer]

Ironically, I think the more attacking football we're seeing in Spain and Italy these days is as a result of the triumph of the English game in the post Italia '90 world.

I make Italia '90 the cut-off point because a HELL of a lot changed after that WC. It really was a major watershed moment in world football that I don't think has been fully recognised yet.

The ban on the tackle from behind and the back pass rule, the change in emphasis from defence to attack, the crack down time wasting, diving, shouting at refs and general play-acting...all of these came in the immediate wake of the horrorshow that was Italia '90 and things really changed after that. Credit is due partly to FIFA for rule changes, and partly to general publics around the world who demanded better football than they were served up at Italia '90.

And as it happened, these rule and emphasis changes suited English football, leading to the explosion of PL popularity in the subsequent years. That popularity and the sheer fun of the PL had an influence all over the world, leading to pressure on Italian and Spanish teams to be more like English teams with more emphasis on end-to-end attack/entertainment than crafty tactical defensiveness.