Clrnc wrote:
Used to think defenders past mid 30s will be quite useless and struggle with young players pace. Bonucci, Chiellini and others like Thiago Silva these years shown that class is permanent. Or maybe lesser teams playing high line and counters
I think it might just be football that has finally started to take fitness seriously on a level that is closer to other sports. Players keep longer because they take care of themselves better and we're seeing the early effect across the board right now. All the best strikers in the world are way past 30 too in every top league. I don't think that's ever been the case before.
You had one Bergkamp and one Maldini here and there in the past, but now you have Silva, Chiellini, Ramos, Messi, Zlatan, Ronaldo, Lewandowski, Benzema, Vardy, Auba before last season... not just big names but big names delivering big performances and topping all the charts even though they were born in the 80s. Someone like Immobile has scored like 90 goals in the last three seasons, and he's the kid of the bunch at the age of 31.
