Football in the 80s

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I caught a BT Sport show yesterday that had extended highlights of a Merseyside derby from around 1988 or 1989 (Liverpool had the Candy shirt on, and Neville Southall still looked almost athletic).

It was quite jarring just how bad the quality of play was. True, the Anfield pitch was cutting up in a way that modern top level pitches don't, but both teams' preferred style of play was to get the ball back to Barry Venison or Derek Mountfield, respectively, who would then hoof it expectantly up towards Rush or Sharp. Silky passing moves in midfield were noticeably absent, compared to the modern game; when chances came, they were ususally the result of a mistake in defence, or the occasional jinking run down the wing by John Barnes, who looks about as quick then as he does now.

I really don't remember it being that bad. These were, after all, the two best English sides of their era. Tom Finney described that Liverpool team as the best he'd ever seen.

[The-Reverend]

Football in the 80s

yeah, football was brilliant for me in the 80's but when I watch games back these days they seem rather worse than I remember.

I think that the backpass rule had a really huge impact on how teams played, as well as the pitches that you have already mentioned. The amount of backpasses back then really destroy any momentum of attacking teams and seemed to negate any chance of teams playing out from the back.

I have this picture of Highfield Road saved:

With the Baseball Ground being like this, as I am sure most can remember


As you say midfield passing moves didn;t seem to occur and was usually a choice of hit it long, hit into channels or get it to a winger to get to the byline and cross it. I've just seen Pat Nevin have a nice run in the Milk Cup Semi against QPR (linked from an excellent guardian piece on Oxfords cup win today)

Back then I was just starting to be a youth keeper at league clubs and I was never told to build from the back, it was expected that you would kick it long (out of hands not off the floor until the advent of Beasant either)for a flick on. Compare that to the roll out of keepers today and it's almost like a different game.

Lastly in one game I was playing for Chesterfield I always remember the advice given to a full back, which was "kick it out youth, they can't score when it's on stand roof"

I'm scared to watch Denmark 86 again now unless they resemble a Pullis team.

[Borracho]

Football in the 80s

This should restore people's faith in the quality of 1980s football, if they have a spare 50 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7TI7x3qpeg

I dig out the DVD of this every three or four years and settle down for the night with a few cans of beer. Absolutely fantastic.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Football in the 80s

I wonder if that game, too, would have looked the same had it been played out on a soggy Heysel pitch on a wet night in November. Enzo Scifo was a glorious player, mind. Noticeable that Belgium didn't have any black players.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Football in the 80s

The first thirty seconds of that game feature two back passes that wind up with the goalkeeper. He wastes time, then picks it up, bounces it twice, and wellies it down the pitch, where two lads go up for the high ball, there's a bit of a tussle, and each side gives away the ball twice before the ref gives a foul

[DCI Harry Batt]

Football in the 80s

Football in the 80s was wonderful.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Football in the 80s

There were one or two clubs that perfected the "big hoof up to the big lad" tactic, certainly. Wimbledon are a little unfairly remembered as the main exponents of that, when in fact I always remember Graham Taylor's Watford as being just as bad, and this was also the era when no-one fancied playing Cambridge or Crystal Palace in the cup.

I wonder - genuinely - how a modern-day Barcelona would cope if fronted up by a team with a Vinnie Jones type midfielder launching balls up to a John Fashanu centre-forward.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Football in the 80s

they'd beat them 3-0 when the game was called off after about 20 minutes because one team had less than seven players.

Going to football may have been wonderful, but the football was really terrible.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Football in the 80s

loving those extended USSR-Belgium highlights, cheers GC

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Football in the 80s

Perhaps it’s growing up with the Scottish game but I have a reverence for wingers that can never be dissipated, and it is one aspect of football in which the 80’s pisses all over the game today.

I am almost finished “Fergie Rises” about Ferguson’s time at Aberdeen and have been watching youtube clips of the games in conjunction with the book. I had completely forgotten what a brilliant player Peter Weir was and it’s glorious to watch him bearing down on goal from the wing, beating one man then another. The UEFA cup match against Ipswich at Pittidrie when he drove Mick Mills demented is a masterclass. Weir on one side, Strachan on the other, Aberdeen were wingtastic.

Partly due to tactical evolution, partly due to the increased skill in defending, you just don’t really see the type of wooshing down the wing as epitomized by Weir any more and it’s a worse game for it.

[Borracho]

Football in the 80s

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote: The first thirty seconds of that game feature two back passes that wind up with the goalkeeper. He wastes time, then picks it up, bounces it twice, and wellies it down the pitch, where two lads go up for the high ball, there's a bit of a tussle, and each side gives away the ball twice before the ref gives a foul

Well, they're playing in 35 degree heat for a start, hence the breathers.

Also, I don't know why you would just dismiss out of hand an incredible match on the basis of a small piece of untidy play in the opening seconds, the sort of thing which by the way we see all the time in modern-day games too.

I missed that particular game on the night because it was a late kick-off and my parents wouldn't let me stay up for it. I was even more disgusted when I heard the result the next day, because I had missed so many goals and because the USSR were a much better footballing team than Belgium.

[Mr Beast]

Football in the 80s

There was plenty of great football in the 80's. It is pointless to compare it today, it is almost another sport. The pitches, the ball, the experience in the ground, even the rules are completely different.

[ale]

Football in the 80s

growing up as a football fan in the 70s the 80s was where football started going wrong...obviously Heysel & Hillsbrough but also the self styled big 5 and not sharing home gate receipts and allowing directors to make profits...

[dalliance]

Football in the 80s

Green Calx wrote:

The first thirty seconds of that game feature two back passes that wind up with the goalkeeper. He wastes time, then picks it up, bounces it twice, and wellies it down the pitch, where two lads go up for the high ball, there's a bit of a tussle, and each side gives away the ball twice before the ref gives a foul

Well, they're playing in 35 degree heat for a start, hence the breathers.

Also, I don't know why you would just dismiss out of hand an incredible match on the basis of a small piece of untidy play in the opening seconds, the sort of thing which by the way we see all the time in modern-day games too.

I missed that particular game on the night because it was a late kick-off and my parents wouldn't let me stay up for it. I was even more disgusted when I heard the result the next day, because I had missed so many goals and because the USSR were a much better footballing team than Belgium.

Yes, what a unpleasantly reductive world view Berbaslug has about pretty much all non-Man United related football. He can dismiss one of the greatest ever World Cup matches out of hand while seemingly finding hundreds of upbeat words to ejaculate over Van Gaal's facsimile of a team.

[ale]

Football in the 80s

dalliance wrote:

The first thirty seconds of that game feature two back passes that wind up with the goalkeeper. He wastes time, then picks it up, bounces it twice, and wellies it down the pitch, where two lads go up for the high ball, there's a bit of a tussle, and each side gives away the ball twice before the ref gives a foul

Well, they're playing in 35 degree heat for a start, hence the breathers.

Also, I don't know why you would just dismiss out of hand an incredible match on the basis of a small piece of untidy play in the opening seconds, the sort of thing which by the way we see all the time in modern-day games too.

I missed that particular game on the night because it was a late kick-off and my parents wouldn't let me stay up for it. I was even more disgusted when I heard the result the next day, because I had missed so many goals and because the USSR were a much better footballing team than Belgium.

Yes, what a unpleasantly reductive world view Berbaslug has about pretty much all non-Man United related football. He can dismiss one of the greatest ever World Cup matches out of hand while seemingly finding hundreds of upbeat words to ejaculate over Van Gaal's facsimile of a team.

can imagine Berba pleading for Atkinson being given more time even as Sir Bobby & the Edwards were flying Ferguson down from Aberdeen...

[DCI Harry Batt]

Football in the 80s

Going to football is football, you big daft bugger.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Football in the 80s

Mind you, I do remember some bloody awful games back then. We beat Southampton 2-0 at home once, worst, most boring game ever.

[seand]

Football in the 80s

Have you got or have you seen the video of Liverpool's 87-8 season Rogin? A while since I saw it now but the football was sublime with Barnes, Beardsley, etc. That was the team that Finney described as Liverpool's best, the one that took Forest apart 5-0 when Forest were the second best team in the country.

Modern football is certainly different, but there's plenty of unspeakable dross on the pitch nowadays too.

[blameless]

Football in the 80s

I got to see that Belgium-CCCP game right to the end, but only because I had an appalling chest infection and my parents knew I wasn't going to be fit for school the following day. Poor Igor Belanov, he looked about ready to strangle some of the Soviet defenders by the end of extra time for wasting his hat-trick so badly.

And seconded on that Liverpool 5 Forest 0 game - it's the second-best one-sided game ever (the best of course being a recent world cup semi-final in Belo Horizonte)

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Football in the 80s

Imma let you finish but this is the best football match of the eighties, bar none.

Porto 4 - 3 Wrexham

[colinwasp]

Football in the 80s

Mustn't forget that less than 10% of all games were covered by TV until the end of the 1980s when ITV had the goals/highlights from other games during the half-time interval of their live game on a Sunday, so it's making an assumption on less than complete evidence.

[Jobi1]

Football in the 80s

You definitely remember things differently to reality though. Not going back quite as far, but York's promotion-winning team of 92/93 were Gods amongst men to 12/13-year-old me, playing the kind of fast flowing, exhilarating attacking football that you'd expect to see at the highest level. Someone uploaded the end of season video to YouTube a year or two ago, and I was aghast at the quality (or lack thereof). The way the skill levels of individual players have gone these days, you'd be a bit annoyed at yourself if you wasted 10 minutes watching a park game while out for a walk if the standard was similar to that of my heroes of 93.

[1974ddr]

Football in the 80s

Mr Beast wrote: There was plenty of great football in the 80's. It is pointless to compare it today, it is almost another sport. The pitches, the ball, the experience in the ground, even the rules are completely different.

Quite right- that's the problem with comparing different eras, everything else was different- the equipment, the rules, tactics, the training regime, the attention given to diet and so on and so on. You can only be the best at the time.

Having said that, when did you last see a penalty retaken for encroachment? What happened to indirect free kicks? Why are keepers allowed to wear short sleeves nowadays? (rants on in similar vein till nurse brings the sedatives out...)

[The-Reverend]

Football in the 80s

1974ddr wrote: Why are keepers allowed to wear short sleeves nowadays? (rants on in similar vein till nurse brings the sedatives out...)

I looked into this, and surprisingly it was never stipulated that a GK Jersey had to be long sleeved, just that it had to be a different colour to teh teams. Olmetta (I think) was teh first to wear short sleeves for Marseilles, though many people attribute it to the other keeper Barthez.

Big change in the 90's for keepers jerseys was when Refs stopped wearing all black, keepers were allowed to now wear black jerseys, with (I think) Big Nev Southall adopting one for Everton.

The thing I miss is keepers having to wear the same shorts and socks as the rest of the team, though I suppose if that was the case these days then the lucrative market for Keepers shorts and socks (Home, Away and Change) would be lost

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Football in the 80s

1974ddr wrote:

Having said that, when did you last see a penalty retaken for encroachment? What happened to indirect free kicks?

Ah, indirect free kicks in the area. 1974ddr, have you come to save us all? I already want to build a revolving 50 foot statue of you in my garden and engrave on the plinth at its base "THERE IS NOTHING IN THE RULES ABOUT GETTING THE BALL".