Should Football Be 10-a-side?

[Ricky_ 893]

Can't believe people are claiming the Euros were boring and disappointing, it was the first tournament in a long time that I was looking forward to the majority of games.

There were shocks (Dutch & Russia going out in the groups, host nations winning opening games ect), Drama in the penalty shootouts with Spain/Portugal – England/Italy and a fantastic final to end which is very rarely seen. (The WC2010 final was a HUGE disappointment and was just a brawl at times).

i cant belive you cited spain/portugal and england/italy as points of entertainment.

Penalty shootouts were entertaining once upon a time, but now they seem to be more frequent, with teams playing for them. imo it's a shame that such high profile matches can come down to "right lets just take shooties-each fae 12 yards". Bayern Munich could have won the CL this season by getting past Madrid & Chelsea on penalties....

The 2 above games you mentioned robbed me of over 4 hours of my life.

Maybe not going 10 a side, but something probably needs done to reverse the trend of football becoming boring and negative. Too many games are becoming like chess matches, but the fact is the reward for playing entertaining football is losing as much as you win, and there is too much at stake these days.

I fear that this all conquering Spanish model will be emulated by other teams/nations. Apart from the final, the Spanish have been torturous to watch. Spain v France was probably the worst game between 2 top class sides I've seen.

Well put Badger. The 10-a-side was just a mad suggestion to get the discussion going in terms of the 'trend'. Others may be a little short sighted but the game is consistantly improving from a technical and tactical aspect, but the by product of that is starving the game of chances & free flowing football. But it did get me thinking, who chose "11" anyway, and why? Why not 12 or 10?

Spain haven't conceeded a goal at the KO stages since Zidane scored against them in 06 WC finals.... 6 years ago.

I'm thinking in broader terms though and footballs world wide appeal. For the past decade or so, the average goals-per-game across the board has been 3. Thats 1 goal every 30 minutes. But thats in decline. In some of the games at the euros i think i was lucky if i seen 1 half chance in 30 minutes the way some of the games went.

Theres just too many stinkers in my view, and it's not hard for teams these days to stink the joint out (or at least attempt to park the bus) - speaking as someone who watches barca/madrid on SS every weekend.

[The Godfather 71,867]

i cant belive you cited spain/portugal and england/italy as points of entertainment.

Penalty shootouts were entertaining once upon a time, but now they seem to be more frequent, with teams playing for them. imo it's a shame that such high profile matches can come down to "right lets just take shooties-each fae 12 yards". Bayern Munich could have won the CL this season by getting past Madrid & Chelsea on penalties....

The 2 above games you mentioned robbed me of over 4 hours of my life.

Teams playing for them?

Italy certainly were not and the football Pirlo was playing was an absolute joy to behold. His passing, movement and to cap it all off THAT penalty were fantastic to watch.

I really don’t know what you are expecting from international tournaments because as many have already said this was one of the better ones in the last decade. Not to your taste maybe but boring?

Not a chance.

[Non_Sucumbi 876]

Caps lock is a bastard

So is forgetting your contact lenses!!!

[Ricky_ 893]

Teams playing for them?

Italy certainly were not and the football Pirlo was playing was an absolute joy to behold. His passing, movement and to cap it all off THAT penalty were fantastic to watch.

I really don’t know what you are expecting from international tournaments because as many have already said this was one of the better ones in the last decade. Not to your taste maybe but boring?

Not a chance.

teams do play for penalties, thats beyond obvious now. Alot of it is to do with the fact they by 90 minutes the guys just dont have anything left in the tank. FIFA themselves are addressing the issue by looking to bring in an extra sub that can be used for games that go to ET.

Pirlo's penalty was nothing special, it's just good composure, and its been done before, and i seem to remember pinto catching 1 before when he tried it, and tbh more keepers should wait till its struck then dive ratehr than gamble. Penalties that hit the top bag are far more impressive.

Indeed, Pirlo was stand out the way he controlled the game in the vein of a Xavi or Scholes, but i was hardly on the edge of my seat as he sprayed passes left and right to players being contained by Englands 2 banks of 4.

For a 2nd tournament in a row i felt the Germans played by far the most entertaining, positive & direct football.

You might disagree that the tournament was boring, and maybe you enjoy 120 minutes of goal less stink-outs, but i think you're in the minority. There was somewhat of a media outburst at spain in this tournament leading to Fabregas coming out after the tournament defending Spains boring style. On the whole, i dont think the Euros was a good advert iternationally for football.

[derek1872 548]

No. The tournament was good, the final even better.

Only way I can see teams matching Spain/Barca is to really work work work on co-ordinated closing down of possession and breaking with great pace and precision.

Either that or copy Spain and do it better but frankly I think that's impossible.

Teams seem to be matching Barca without too much difficulty, hence them losing both the CL and the league this year.

[possobear 8]

Just sticking this out there...

was thinkign about the game today and what possible changes could be made (probably never will, but hey).

Gotta admit, the Euro's was the most disapointing tournament i can remember, from an entertainment point of view. While i can appreciate that technically the players of todays game keep getting better, i can help but feel negative tactics seem to be winning the day.

We all slated Craig Levien when he played a 460 against the Czechs, but now the spanish are doing it. Their approach is obviously different, the Spanish philosophy is centered around possession retainment. To retain possession you always need to outnumber your opponent in the action areas. The forwards drop in deep and the defenders push up higher squeezing the pitch down to about a 3rd of it's size.

Portugal against Spain was mind numbing, Portugal were 1 of the few teams to live tactically with Spain, with Nani and Ronaldo stifling them playing out of the back and Pepe/Coentrauo, the Real Madrid boys adopting a Mourinho V Barca style workrate & gameplan. I'm not going to lie, that game was fucking mind numbingly boring, even if yo ucan appreciate the chess match taking place.

Italy against England was another i found incredibly boring, Pirlo took the Xavi role with Italy just outpassing England, who's old school 442 style system just couldnt get them out their own half, and possibly 1 of the better example of modern possession retainment tactics showing it's dominance.

Do you think the game could have greater appeal & be more entertaining if it were 10-a-side? & Perhaps allow up to 5 subs to drastically change games/shapes throughout. When all is said and done, we all watch football to be entertained, imo i think 10 v 10 woudl open games up much greater, place more emphasis on speed and fitness, and overall we'd see more goals & more chances.