Klaus Re: Madueke, and Gyökeres for that matter, I was listening to a pundit conversation between two managers who've worked extensively in Europe and are generally well-connected with that part of the game, and they mentioned how there's been a trend lately (or maybe the onset of a trend) where clubs are putting a much bigger emphasis on direct players.
You can trace its origins back a few years perhaps but it's something people in the game are keenly aware about right now. Players who can carry the ball, dribble and challenge are being scouted to a much greater extent and their value has gone up, since they are fewer in numbers.
I thought about it for a bit, and it struck me that not just the signings we've made but most of the players we've been linked to this summer have followed a similar pattern.
Hope that's true as I've wanted that for a long time now. All this possession ControlBall™️ football around Europe for the last decade and a half has been boring as fuck to me. Guardiola and his brand of football just isn't for me most of the time. They just bore you tire you to the point of giving up making a mistake.
Annoying that it was so successful as it resulted in coaches all around Europe copying it for hope of the same success. Obviously caveated by the fact that Guardiola had Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets at Barca and the most expensive and best time in both Bayern and City so success is pretty much expected.
More dribblers, more pace, more flair. That's what I enjoy watching. Probably why I've gone from watching any kind of game I could watch back in the late 90s until the late 2000s to pretty much only exculsively watching our games these days. Yes, the level of the game is so much higher than it used to be, but with all the focus on positioning, defensive shape, control, it's also a lot less fun to watch. At least it is for me.
