"Rampant anti-football tactics leave League Two fans short changed"

[mr.hobblesworth]

https://www.wsc.co.uk/stories/hard-watch-rampant-anti-football-tactics-leave-league-two-fans-short-changed/

Battles of attrition and tedious timewasting in the lower leagues are increasingly a turn-off for supporters, whose entertainment is sacrificed for points

By Mark Hodkinson

12 December 2022

A League Two footballer looks much the same as his counterpart from the Premier League – lithe, muscular, dabs of peroxide in his hair and a neck or arm (sometimes both) sheathed in tattoos. The former, however, earns an average of £2,000 per week; the latter, £60,000.

To the uninitiated, this differential can seem both unfair and outlandish. They can all run and tackle and shoot, can’t they? So why do those at the top earn 30 times more? A visit to a match between lower league clubs will provide the answer. With only a handful of spirited exceptions, perhaps Forest Green Rovers last season and Leyton Orient this, it is routinely no-fun football.

The disparity of talent, top division to bottom, is manifest, of course, but the greater concern is that lower league players have become a homogenised whole. In acknowledgement of their inferior technique and vision, the compulsion has been to focus on athleticism, strength and bulk. Sides cancel each other out and games become exercises in attrition. Among all the running, pushing and shoving (often termed the press), there is literally no space for free-flowing, joyful football.

Players have realised that most matches invoke this weary stalemate and responded accordingly. Scoring chances are so few that should a team fluke upon a lead, they “bank it” resorting to anti-football to ensure the win does not become a draw or defeat. Fans accept this ploy in the last few minutes of a game but, down the leagues, it often comes into play as soon as a lead is taken, at whatever point in the match. Pundits and players have already named this nefarious strategy; take your pick from gamesmanship, game management, <ovf censored> or, perhaps most apt, the Dark Arts.

These terms cover a range of deeds that despoil a game of football. On any given Saturday this will include feigning injury, refusing to retrieve the ball, delaying free-kicks and throw-ins, goalkeepers belly-flopping on the ball, substituted players slowly (very slowly) departing the field and players kicking the ball away when a free-kick is awarded against them – this has become endemic over the past two seasons.

These constant, irritating stoppages are designed to suffocate a game and, most importantly, “waste” time. The premise is simple: the fewer number of minutes of open play, the less chance for the opposition to score a goal. Within the existing laws of the game this stratagem should fail magnificently, but these devious sleights are carried out largely with impunity.

It is hard to fathom why a blind eye is turned by referees and league officials, especially when the scourge is in plain sight. A player wastes time because he knows the added time will fall short of the true number, so his cheating is rewarded. The issue is easily eradicated. Independent time-keepers could be utilised or the stolen number of seconds and minutes doubled and played out at the end of the match – they’d soon retrieve the bloody ball, then.

During those rare passages of actual play, prevailing tactics have done little to increase the entertainment value. Whereas tiki-taka has been used by elite clubs to elude opponents with snappy, progressive passes, the lower league parody has seen the centre-back pass to the other centre-back, to the goalkeeper, to the deep-lying midfielder, to the centre-back, to the goalkeeper. Bored yet? If you’re not, try a stab of acute despondency instead, as that same centre-back is caught in possession and the ball gleefully thrashed into your team’s net.

Previously, players from higher echelons would finish their careers down the leagues, if only for the sheer love of playing. In recent years fear of injury in such a bear pit has deterred them, so there is no longer their sprinkling of guile and imagination. Instead the players, most of them Premier League academy cast-offs, appear to have been mono-coached, making the same runs and safe passes, usually sideways and backwards, because they have been taught no-risk, possession-based football is everything.

As it stands, it feels as if the whole community of football at the thick end of the professional pyramid – clubs, managers, players, referees and officials – are in cahoots in sanctioning this relentless, wretched fare. Eventually, all but the most partisan supporters will stay loyal, while the rest grow disillusioned by the endemic cynicism and move on. The talk will be of a lost generation of fans and those ground-out, deathly dull 1-0 wins against Gillingham, Crawley Town et al will have come at a huge cost.

This article first appeared in WSC 427, January 2023. Subscribers get free access to the complete WSC digital archive

 

Wondered what people thought of this. I think much of what the author writes about isn't particularly confined to League Two and whilst I was never particularly thrilled by Lucas Covolan's antics, it feels like the writer has his eyes closed to similar nonsense going on in the Premiership.

[Seamus O'Wye]

 

1 hour ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

Wondered what people thought of this. I think much of what the author writes about isn't particularly confined to League Two and whilst I was never particularly thrilled by Lucas Covolan's antics, it feels like the writer has his eyes closed to similar nonsense going on in the Premiership.

                 .....       I agree with the majority of what Mr Hodkinson says,  and also with your point re the Premiership. Vale have also gone along this route, to the annoyance of many fans... hence the groans (and occasional boos) when the ball is played backwards when we need to play it forwards. or decline to put a cross in and the ball goes all the way back to the FB or CH. We also have fans who berate/curse at/ insult opposition players for pinching yards at throw ins and free kicks, yet say nothing when Vale players do it ! Football  is no longer about entertaining the fans, it has become purely a 'results business.'  Rant over.

[Packmoor_vale]

I can only assume that at the World Cup all these extra minutes at the end is the start to stopping this and let’s hope so👍

[NorthwoodValiant]

6 minutes ago, Packmoor_vale said:

I can only assume that at the World Cup all these extra minutes at the end is the start to stopping this and let’s hope so👍

Seems like it could be another way to favour the big teams, Derby down 1-0 away at vale on 90 minutes? 13 minutes stoppage time it is

[valiant steve]

The worst "anti-football teams" that I've seen for a while are Charlton Athletic (under <ovf censored>) and England under Southgate! 

[mr.hobblesworth]

I don't see what was so spirited or fun about Forest Green last season.

[Santa]

I think there’s a grain of truth in that article, however it’s been wrapped up in a hell of a lot of ill-informed bow locks.

I like WSC but the quality of its contributors can vary massively.

[Essex Vale]

I pretty much agree with the sentiments of the article.  Three exemplars spring to mind.  Against poor teams England looked like world beaters and started the world cup on fire.  Against better teams the lack of an absolute world beater was our downfall.  England are, in my view, better overall than France and Argentina, the key difference is Messi and Mbappe.  We have not had a genuine world class attacking player, admired around the world, and who played for a number of years, since Bobby Charlton.

Gareth Southgate has built an efficient, capable pleasant team and no manager could have done a better job.  The managers of Argentina and France are no better than him.  Southgate does not have Messi or Mbappe.

The England cricket teams give the perfect example of how to do well without world beaters.  Our one day team was dreadful until Eoin Morgan took over.  His tactics did not focus on the ordinary, he looked at ways to beat the efficient systems built up by others and found out how to overcome them, result was, we are the undisputed world champions of all one day cricket.  Morgan's legacy lives on.

The test match team was a joke, with no new players and no superstars, but under new leadership we can beat anyone we have played so far.   Joe Root is a wonderful player but a traditional, uninspired captain lacking tactical genuis.  Ben Stokes, along with coach Brendan McCullum changed their approach, they have no superstars, so they used inspiring tactics, and broke the mould of formations etc.

England's footballers are a match for anyone, but until we throw away our traditional, cautions, traditional approach, focused on tactics and uniformity we will remain close but not quite there.

[JoeB2]

Very 'man shouts at cloud' vibes. There's a pervasive sense in many that football is uniquely rubbish right now, and it isn't the same sport it has always been, which is often boring but sometimes brilliant (you just remember the brilliant bits from yesteryear and forget the boring bits).

Yes, there is timewasting and negative football in League 2, as there is in every league from Premier League to Dog and Duck, from Argentina to Australia. 

I've seen a lot of entertaining games in the last couple of seasons, and a lot of dire games. I could say the exact same about the World Cup, and the same about the Premier League. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe sh...... It's more the sport than any specific comment on a particular league.

There's a real lack of coherence to the article - he starts by asserting lower league players  

Quote

"focus on athleticism, strength and bulk. Sides cancel each other out and games become exercises in attrition. Among all the running, pushing and shoving (often termed the press), there is literally no space for free-flowing, joyful football."

And then finishes by lambasting teams playing out from the back. Which one is it? Attritional running, pushing, shoving, athleticism, strength, and bulk, or teams tippy-tapping about in defence?

I imagine the author has either a) seen his team been victim to timewasting recently and didn't take it very well, or b) doesn't watch much lower-league football.

Garbage.

[Emile]

I find prem football incredibly boring. I haven't watched a full game in years. Both teams cancel eachother out.

I'd watch league two a million times over. 

[Phil500]

Same here. Would choose to watch Altrincham v Eastleigh before England v Senegal. Top level football is like watching a game of chess. I want goal mouth action and loads of mistakes.

[Coyney Valiant]

3 hours ago, Essex Vale said:

I pretty much agree with the sentiments of the article.  Three exemplars spring to mind.  Against poor teams England looked like world beaters and started the world cup on fire.  Against better teams the lack of an absolute world beater was our downfall.  England are, in my view, better overall than France and Argentina, the key difference is Messi and Mbappe.  We have not had a genuine world class attacking player, admired around the world, and who played for a number of years, since Bobby Charlton.

Gareth Southgate has built an efficient, capable pleasant team and no manager could have done a better job.  The managers of Argentina and France are no better than him.  Southgate does not have Messi or Mbappe.

The England cricket teams give the perfect example of how to do well without world beaters.  Our one day team was dreadful until Eoin Morgan took over.  His tactics did not focus on the ordinary, he looked at ways to beat the efficient systems built up by others and found out how to overcome them, result was, we are the undisputed world champions of all one day cricket.  Morgan's legacy lives on.

The test match team was a joke, with no new players and no superstars, but under new leadership we can beat anyone we have played so far.   Joe Root is a wonderful player but a traditional, uninspired captain lacking tactical genuis.  Ben Stokes, along with coach Brendan McCullum changed their approach, they have no superstars, so they used inspiring tactics, and broke the mould of formations etc.

England's footballers are a match for anyone, but until we throw away our traditional, cautions, traditional approach, focused on tactics and uniformity we will remain close but not quite there.

Isn’t that down to the manager and regards to the England cricket team we’re good because we pick players from Jamaica South Africa  Evan stokes was born in New Zealand it does help a bit 

[osprey]

I too find Premiership boring but would also add I find Vale boring as well when we go to pass backwards/ sideways repeat routine 

there must be games now at all levels where the number of back / side passes outnumber the number of forward passes in the 90 minutes 

[SFBT]

Whatever the merits, this article reflects many of the views that I have been developing over the past few years.

Standards are higher at all levels. Opponents are analysed microscopically.

There are many more ways to stop the opposition.

League's one and two are far more studied enterprises than they used to be, and games can appear to be quite chess like.

Perhaps I'm simply getting older, and definitely less competitive, so I intensely dislike unsporting behaviours, which are manifold. Whether it's Vale or a n other.

There are things to enjoy still, of course.

Nowadays, I see footballers as people, not heroes.

So the shine has inevitably worn off.

Impossible to know how much of that is the game and how much is me. 🤔⛄

Merry Christmas 🎄

[Doha]

5 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

Yes, there is timewasting and negative football in League 2,

The Author needs to watch some match replays of Lloris and Martinez over the 4 knockout games. If he thinks L2 is the realm of timewasting dross while the top levels are free flowing joga bonito, he’s going to be sorely disappointed.