[Albion] The Athletic

[El Presidente]

Appreciate not everyone subscribes but a really good article that can be summed up as

(1) We’re f***ing brilliant
(2) Michael Owen is a bellend

Athletic

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Appreciate not everyone subscribes but a really good article that can be summed up as

(1) We’re f***ing brilliant
(2) Michael Owen is a bellend

Athletic

What did Owen say? The clips I heard were complimentary from him.

 

[Bakero]

What did Owen say? The clips I heard were complimentary from him.

Owen loves us and was giggling like a schoolboy having enjoyed out win so much last night.

The article refers to some comments he made the other day about modern football valuing physicality over technique. Michael Cox argues our diminutive ballers give the lie to that assertion.

 

[Wozza]

"Roberto De Zerbi’s side, and particularly his starting XI for this game, must be among the most purely technical ever seen in English football."

 

[Stat Brother]

"Roberto De Zerbi’s side, and particularly his starting XI for this game, must be among the most purely technical ever seen in English football."

 

[Bakero]

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

We REEK of class

 

[Jim in the West]

We REEK of class

Plus: Couldn't happen to a nicer club!!

 

[Simster]

Owen loves us and was giggling like a schoolboy having enjoyed out win so much last night.

The article refers to some comments he made the other day about modern football valuing physicality over technique. Michael Cox argues our diminutive ballers give the lie to that assertion.

I haven't read the article but if Owen was trying to say you have to be a bit of a unit and an athlete to compete at the highest level then I think I agree with him. The days of senior pros going to the pub after training are long gone. Those players don't last more than a handful of seasons. But he's wrong if he thinks modern football values physicality over technique. These days, you first have to have the technique to get anywhere near a pro contract. You also have to be willing to work hard enough to become super fit, and strong enough to hold your own.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Michael Owen has said some very complimentary things there. I don't think he's a good co-commentator, but he is a decent panel pundit and is in a select few of former England internationals that were truly world class, so his views count.

As for physicality over technique, I don't think things have changed all that much since his heyday in this regard.

 

[Bakero]

I haven't read the article but if Owen was trying to say you have to be a bit of a unit and an athlete to compete at the highest level then I think I agree with him. The days of senior pros going to the pub after training are long gone. Those players don't last more than a handful of seasons. But he's wrong if he thinks modern football values physicality over technique. These days, you first have to have the technique to get anywhere near a pro contract. You also have to be willing to work hard enough to become super fit, and strong enough to hold your own.

He says that nowadays if you can run and pass the ball from A to B, you can make it in the Premier League, whereas in the past there were some real ballers.

 

[Simster]

He says that nowadays if you can run and pass the ball from A to B, you can make it in the Premier League, whereas I'm the past there were some real ballers.

That is clearly bollocks. The attitudes surrounding physicality and fitness changed in the 90s (before his time), not the 2010s.

 

[Bakero]

That is clearly bollocks. The attitudes surrounding physicality and fitness changed in the 90s (before his time), not the 2010s.

You also used to get some relative donkeys in the top flight. Some of the blokes knocking about in the mid-90s wouldn't cut it in the high-pressing, possession-based modern game.