I pride myself on being an ardent football fan. My weekend consists of sitting on my couch and binge-watching majority of the English Premier League matches. Sad, I know. But last Saturday I found myself watching the Sidemen Charity Match on You Tube while EPL matches were going on. And no, I am not twelve years old. I’m a grown man who loves his football. But I was weirdly excited about watching random You Tubers kick a ball for the sake of charity.
The Sidemen charity match had over 2.5 million live viewers on You Tube. Not to mention filling out Wembley. It’s a massive achievement despite concerns about the scheduling of the game. The match collided with football kick off times across Europe with Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Dortmund among the teams playing at the same time.
Robotic football
There is a growing disconnect among football fans with the modern game. There isn’t enough excitement in games. Everyone is trying the same things and you can almost picture how every match is going to play out. I never once felt that I was missing out on something in watching the charity game over the EPL.
The Sidemen match, on the other hand, lacked badly in quality but had a nostalgic old school feel to it. No inverting fullbacks, no out of possession structure and refreshingly no playing out from the back. It was amateur at best but it got you excited as you didn’t know what was going to happen. That randomness is what modern football is lacking.
There are way too many robotic players coming out of the Academies. Players produced to play fixed roles, no X factor whatsoever. Rarely does a game get you off your feet with a moment of magic, many times it’s the same patterns of play producing the same type of goals. Either an underlapping run from the wing for a cutback or playing out from the back through your opponent and advancing towards goal. It’s way too tedious on the eye.
The amount of football too doesn’t help. Injuries have become a constant in the modern game. Way too many teams are losing their best players for a significant period during the season.
While in the modern day, defenders are arguably better technically than they were 20 years ago, the quality of midfielders especially creative ones, is definitely worse than ever. Players such as Phil Foden and Joao Felix are considered elite in terms of talent and aesthetics but both struggle in being the creative spark when given the responsibility. There is no number 10 anymore, no one gets you off your feet.
Lastly, the Sidemen Charity match shows the power of social media. You can make your dreams come true and have a bit of fun along the way. Sketch was surprisingly decent in goal!
