Sports that you've learned to love later in life

[sledger]

I think in domestic leagues, or at least in the Premiership anyway, draws are considered "bad" results by the big teams a lot more frequently than they used to be too, which may also have something to do with it. Now that 90+ points is basically required each year as a minimum to have a chance of winning the thing, there are far fewer games that constitute a potentially "good point on the road", and far more that constitute "two points dropped".

 

[GIMH]

Agree. It's probably just an anecdote but even when we had Aldo up front in the 90s I remember a good few 0-0s a season whereas I can genuinely only think of two from the last two seasons. There were probably others. Mind you, might just be because our defence has been turd at times

 

[BoyBrumby]

Imagine the backpass rule had an impact on goals.

Mind you it's like 35 years now, so there's likely other factors in play.

The "reinterpretation" of the offside rule re active/passive for one.

I always think of Clough's quote, "If he's not interfering with play then he ****ing well should be."

 

[GIMH]

Backpass rule probably did at first, I mean I remember TRFC losing a friendly 7-1 to Liverpool because one of our CBs forgot the rule had been brought in and kept passing it back in dodgy situations. That was literally the summer it was brought in though.

These days it's kind of immaterial because even hack keepers in non-league are trained from a young age to use their feet. Eric Nixon was arguably one of the best shotstoppers in the country at his peak for us, but couldn't kick the ball in a straight line. This was an issue as the game evolved even before the passback rule, but afterwards pretty much made us his ceiling.

I remember a game a couple of years ago where a dodgy backpass was played to our keeper, and it was aerial. He panicked and headed the ball, conceded possession, they scored. A 90s keeper, even post-rule change, is collecting that ball in his hands every time, the same way defenders make tactical fouls. But it's so ingrained in them not to do it that it's not even like a rule but just something you don't do. So maybe it's not immaterial but you don't see many goals arise from it, to my mind.

 

[Ali TT]

So looking at the PL stats, goals per game pretty much ticked along at 2.45-2.65 a game from 92/93, then from 2009/10 it jumped up to about 2.7-2.8 a game but four of the five highest scoring PL seasons have been the last 4. All over 2.8 with 23/24 averaging 3.28.

Across the history of top flight English football 1889/90 comes top - 4.63.

 

[morgieb]

Across a lot of sports there's been a move to higher and/or faster scoring. This is especially true in basketball, American football and cricket, possibly also rugby union but less so football (can't speak for AFL). This has probably made them more entertaining to many but I think loses some of the intensity and intrigue when there's more of a balance between offence and defence.

With basketball, I don't recognise that it's only a we score - you score back-and-forth. People who say that probably think Americans can't deal with cricket because baseball is a game for people with short attention spans. There's usually quite a few shifts in momentum in basketball as teams adjust tactics and players during the game with streaks and runs, back-and-forths and even defence-on-top scoring-comes-to-a-standstill periods. However, the modern version, where each team has a bunch of shooters that can knock down 3s at any point, has made games a bit more samey.

AFL might be the only sport where the trend is in the opposite direction, lol. Although that trend has stabilised.

League is higher scoring than it was in the 2010's but perhaps only on the level of the early 2000's?

 

[Molehill]

I blame Pep, he taught teams to play out from the back, but most of them can’t!!

 

[shortpitched713]

I blame Pep, he taught teams to play out from the back, but most of them can’t!!

One think I dislike most about the trend is the seeming complete loss of risk reward for back-line/goalkeepers when it comes to passing. I get te idea is to play it out with short passes, and it's and admirable and good end when it comes off and you work the ball to midfielders with space to turn, etc. But when it isn't working, the opponent's press is taking away time and space, then they aren't willing to try a long ball to a single marked forward or winger. Much better to content yourself with that, than a much riskier disposession around your own third. A couple of passes in you'll basically know in many situations if this makes sense based on what the defending team shows you, but they just don't want to respond and take what the defense is showing and giving you. It's infuriating.