So many aspects of the current game weren’t even on the
horizon back then. Injury time was simply that; time added on for genuine
injuries. Refs might add a minute if a trainer came on with the magic sponge,
two if a stretcher was required. Even if a young Alex Ferguson was jabbing frantically at his toy watch. Similarly, half-time wasn’t a fifteen-minute break
for adverts and trip to the prawn and avocado ciabatta stall at Old Trafford,
but a mere five minutes for half an orange and a sharp tactical talk. Games ended on a Saturday afternoon at 4.40.
Shirt sponsorship didn’t appear until the late Seventies and
players’ names printed on the back didn’t arrive until the era of squad numbers
in the Nineties. The idea of squad was a bit fanciful, too. The top clubs
essentially often played about sixteen players across a whole season, plus a
few reserves in case of injury. Tactical substitutions were relatively rare;
with only one nominated sub allowed, you were scuppered if, having brought on
your number 12, someone was injured.
It must have been difficult picking your twelfth man. Choose
a forward and your mid-match defensive options were consequently limited, and
vice-versa. Managers loved to have at their disposal a ‘utility player’,
someone who could fit in almost anywhere. While England hadn’t embraced the
Ajax Amsterdam philosophy of ‘total football’ – interchangeable positions to
confound markers – there were a few around. Leeds United’s Paul Madeley was
renowned for his versatility, and both Colin Todd and Kevin Beattie were more than capable
as centre-back, full-back or even midfield. Each played for England, too.
Now we have an ever-expanding number of bench-sitters with a
maximum of three substitutions allowed in a ninety-minute game. The modern day
Madeleys would have less value because managers have greater flexibility when
it comes to replacing the injured, tired, dismissed or tactically redundant.
The rule change has also almost eradicated the once-familiar sight of an
injured goalie being forced to hand his gloves to an outfield colleague. I’m
not sure whether Madeley did it, but Chelsea’s defender David Webb, and Leeds’
Lucas Radebe two decades later proved quite adept. Glenn Hoddle, Bobby Moore and
even Robbie Savage had
to stand in for their respective ‘number one’s on occasions.
If the genuine all-rounder is a rarity, then the impact player has replaced him. Normally
for purely tactical purposes, we have become accustomed to the likes of Olivier
Giroud being introduced for the final twenty minutes to harass tired
centre-backs, Marouane Fellaini to add his height and elbows in a defensive
cause or, in Real Madrid’s case, Gareth Bale to run at heavy-legged defenders in search of a winning goal or equaliser. Get it wrong and it’s a futile
gesture of desperation by the manager. Get it right and he is a tactical genius
while the player can also soak up the adulation. There used to be ‘super-subs’ in
the old days, too. Liverpool’s ginger-haired striker David Fairclough made a
name purely as a young number twelve who scored some vital late goals, such as
this one in a 1976 Merseyside derby.
Ball technology was totally different. I think by then
leather had given way to plastic, but footballers still had to give it some
welly if they were attempting a long ball. As today, defenders wouldn’t flinch
from heading a ball descending from the heavens. However, it has since been
demonstrated that constant headers caused lasting brain damage, a medically
proven to be a crucial factor in the sad death in 2002 of West Brom and England
centre-forward Jeff Astle, aged only 59. Current balls have the weight of a
beach ball in comparison.
Goalkeepers rarely cleared with the ball on the ground; it
would never reach the halfway line. Therefore they tended to use drop-kicks for
distance or throws for accuracy. As my Dad was always fond of remarking,
“goalies have it so easy these days”. By the Seventies, it was no longer legal
to barge a ‘keeper into the net, as had been the case when my Dad stood between
the sticks two decades earlier. However, they were allowed to pick up a back
pass and bounce the ball liberally. An interim regulation penalising goalies
who held the ball for more than four paces kept play moving more freely but has
since been replaced by the six-second rule. I’m becoming fed up, though, with the latest
time-wasting ruse by goalies of catching the ball and slumping to the ground
for what seems like an age before rolling the ball out to a team-mate. It’s
about time FIFA clamped down on such cheating.
However, whether or not it’s in the genes, I still take much
pleasure from seeing an excellent ‘keeper on display, preferably upright. At
under 5 feet 6, I was pretty useless in that position (or indeed any position)
but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate fine ‘keeping in any era, whatever the
regulations, from Shilton to Schmeichel, Jennings to De Gea. More of that in
a future blog.
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