I Participated in a Legendary Teamwith Ronaldo and Ronaldinho; Football's Radically Changed
Golden Football Memories Fade Away?
It seems some football enthusiasts believe we've left the glory days behind. While there's evidence to support that notion, it's a very subjective topic.
For those who lived through the heights of the 2004-2010 Premier League era, or the international football renaissance of the early 2000s, their insider perspectives are invaluable.
Legendary players like 2002 World Cup winner and former Arsenal star Gilberto Silva have a unique connection to these bygone days. As part of Arsenal's iconic invincibles team of 2004, Silva left an indelible mark on the club's history, even scoring a few FA Cup wins for good measure.
Silva's teammates included living legends such as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho on the international stage, plus icons like Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal. The Brazilian's been open about his luck to play alongside such a star-studded cast, but he also believes football has changed dramatically since those days.
According to Silva, the new wave of talent now plays in a more restrained fashion compared to 20 years ago. He attributes this to shifts in the football landscape.
"Football has changed a lot in recent years," Silva told talkSPORT. "The players are more athletic now. In our time, we were football players that at some stage wanted to become athletes. We had more freedom to go and create and express ourselves, make mistakes."
Silva was then asked if the systemic overhauls imposed by managers like Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, and Mikel Arteta have harmed the game. The impact of adopting a 'play out from the back' style has caused controversy, with some fans believing it's sucked the entertainment out of the game.
"I watch many games and sometimes all the games, and the systems used all look the same," Silva stated. "You don't see many players that are going to break the lines and go past one, two, or three players. Sometimes when you have that type of player in a team, he draws criticism. This type of player needs to be appreciated because he changes the rhythm of the game, although he's not always going to get things right."
Silva's observations come at a time when Brazil's struggle to produce the same caliber of players they did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Brazilian football factory's assembly line of creative geniuses has stopped, with the last great player being Neymar. Injuries have plagued his career, and Brazil now boasts a crop of efficient players heavily influenced by system-based football.
Silva's thoughts were echoed by former Watford striker Troy Deeney. "When we look at football now, we have athletes who are being made into footballers," Deeney said. "Before, we used to play with freedom. You think of the time Gilberto played with Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, and Cafu. The time has gone, but they were great players, all individual mavericks. They did their thing, they tried something different."
- The Premier League era from 2004-2010 and the international football renaissance of the early 2000s are often reminisced by football fans, with legendary players like Gilberto Silva and players such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, and Cesc Fabregas being a part of those unforgettable times.
- Gilberto Silva, a member of Arsenal's invincible team of 2004 and a winner of the 2002 World Cup, has expressed that football has changed significantly since those days.
- In contemporary football, Silva believes that players play in a more controlled manner, attributing this change to shifts in the football landscape.
- Silva noted that some fans believe the systemic overhauls implemented by managers like Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, and Mikel Arteta have impacted the game, with a shift towards a 'play out from the back' style generating controversy for potentially taking the entertainment out of the game.
- Together, Gilberto Silva and former Watford striker Troy Deeney opine that today's footballers are athletes being molded into footballers, and that the free-spirited style of play prevalent in the late 1990s and early 2000s seems to have waned, with Brazil specifically failing to produce the caliber of creative players it had during that period.
- The decline of the Brazilian football factory and the failure to consistently churn out innovative geniuses, evident in the case of Neymar, who has been plagued by injuries, signifies a shift in the European-leagues and American-football towards a system-based approach to the game.
