Is football becoming less exciting for the fans?

Over the last three or four seasons there is no doubt that there have been some brilliant, enthralling games of football played, many of them in the games most prestigious competitions. The Arsenal V Barca Champions League tie for example, or perhaps a game from our very own Premier League-maybe Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal from two years ago, or United 4-3 City from the same season. We can safely say that the quality of football on show worldwide is not slipping.

However, maybe we can argue that the entertainment value has decreased; if indeed such a thing is tangible. In my opinion teams are now setting up more pragmatically when facing a more fancied opponent, even at home. This means that Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal face difficult challenges; and the opposition, instead of going forward and taking the risk in pursuit of a goal, sit back and are content to ‘park the bus’ and take a draw. Many examples of this can also be seen, such as Inter Milan using a tactic of containment and stifling to upset Barca’s usual passing rhythm two years ago.

The same thing can be seen almost every week in the Premier League, and also in the Spanish and Italian Leagues – where defensive set-ups are seen every week in the land of catenaccio. Where once teams would have come out (especially at home) and taken the game to one of the title contenders, they now seem content to sit back and stifle the game, hoping for a set-piece or counter attack chance. While this is of course very understandable with the strength of most big teams now, it does sometimes create a less exciting spectacle.

There are exceptions though. Last season Hercules, one of Spain’s promoted teams, went to the Camp Nou for their first away game and completely stunned Barca, winning 2-0 in a game where they attacked start to finish. And of course in the Premier League last season, Wolves played Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool at home and won all three games-largely due to an attack minded game plan.

But we have to weigh this against the countless games where the so-called ‘smaller team’ sits back and defends, hoping for a draw. My point here is not that the quality of football is decreasing, or that the individual player skill is; merely that the tactics of the game are evolving so that the end-to-end, bold and exciting nature of games may just be fading away slightly – and I for one think this is a great shame.