There are several reasons why the Premier League is the most watched and most popular one in world sport. The competitiveness, the unpredictability, the fact that every game is between two sides going all out for the three points (at least now Norwich City are no longer likely to make an appearance) are just three of those reasons, and are also the very reason why the Premier League Betting Market is the biggest in football.
It is easy to think it is just the players who make this league such a spectacle, but without the men in the dugout dictating what those players do, and getting the very best of them, they are merely very expensive names on shirts.
Changing Foundations
It is true that football has evolved massively in recent years. The tactical and strategic side of things has come on leaps and bounds, not just at the top of the English footballing pyramid, but all the way down to the fourth tier and beyond. But the type of tactics many teams are playing today, just would not have been possible in times gone by, mainly because of the fitness of the players.
The ultra-high intensity employed today, and the sheer amount of grass covered requires incredible levels of fitness. A fitness that relies on nutrition and is backed up by a whole team of professionals who look after every aspect of a player through his training, match prep, recovery etc etc. That just did not exist until relatively recently.
The increase in the number of substitutes also means it is easier for a club to maintain those energy levels for the full 90 minutes.
Early Innovator
The amount of analysis and data that is around the game today, added to the factors we have just discussed, does give the impression tactical innovation is a new part of the game, and that in years gone by it was 22 players in a rigid 4-4-2 system.
That is far from the truth however. Sir Alf Ramsey, the most successful England manager of all time was an extremely tactically astute manager. He ripped up the rule book when it came to how teams in England could play the beautiful game, partly inspired by the humbling dished out to Ramsey as a player by the Magical Magyars.
Ramsey developed and employed his ‘wingless wonders’ strategy at Ipswich Town, taking them to successive league titles. He then of course used it to such good effect as England manager.
The Premier Years
Arsène Wenger’s 22-year spell at Arsenal was remarkable for many things. Ten major trophies including the ‘Invincible Season’ speak for themselves, but he probably more than anyone else in the English game changed the philosophy of what a top level football player should be and how they should look after their bodies.
As a coach he was also someone who handed over a lot of the responsibility to his players. Trusting them to take responsibility for what went on, on the pitch, to see what needed changing, and implement those changes.
His great rival at the time Sir Alex Ferguson, despite his success is rarely held up as a tactical genius. The Scotsman’s talents were elsewhere when it came to building a team and a squad of players that would obliterate everything else in their path, at least domestically. To continually reinvent the team and the squad in the way he did, and not just by relying on his chequebook, is a world away from what the top teams do today.
Pep and Klopp
In recent years, the two managers who are credited with taking the English game to another level are of course Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Guardiola adopted the tiki-taka style from his Barcelona days and took it to another level at his Manchester City sides, even utilising a traditional number 9.
Before Klopp, the term ‘press’ was rarely heard of, especially in common football terrace parlance. He not only made it a must have in the game, but took it to another level.
The list goes on and on, and today, the match up between the coaches is every bit as intriguing as between attacking midfielder and full back, centre forward and centre half. It does make you wonder what lies in store in the future.
