Cesc Fabregas has warned that a player’s talent is no longer the top priority in football and that the game is becoming “robotic”.
The midfielder believes that the importance of statistics and use of GPS have taken over teams’ preparations and are taking the emotion out of the sport.
The changes that football has gone through have made Fabregas feel “old school”, but he admits it will never go back to the way it was.
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What has been said?
“Football has changed a lot, a lot, a lot,” the Spain international told Marca.
“The change began four or five years ago and now it is quite noticeable.
“I have had several trainers and it has not happened to me with one or two. It has happened to me with four and with five. This is here to stay.
“They are methodologies that have been based on many automatisms in which the coach basically tells you how far you have to pass the ball at all times. The player has to be placed in a specific place. A robotic game is being made.
“Then there is the GPS game. Many coaches are obsessed with numbers. If you don’t do those numbers, you’re not ready to play, that if you rest you have to do these numbers to maintain the level… sometimes I’m a bit of the ‘old school’ in this regard.
“I have lived great moments, great stages of my career in which physically and emotionally, without training, I had great seasons.
“Now it seems that if you don’t train you can’t be well. It’s all based on science, numbers and GPS.”
Talent less important
Fabregas has also noticed that coaches no longer worry about a player’s real footballing ability and instead prioritise speed and strength.
“What the modern coach wants is competitiveness, that the footballer is physically at his best,” he said.
“It is what it is. If one player is faster than another and the one who is a bit slower has more talent, he plays the stronger and faster [guy]. I do not have any doubt.
“You watch games and you know what is going to happen. A little pressure, a long ball behind the back, the striker pushes it to the end or for the midfielder to arrive and it becomes very monotonous in many teams.
“The obsession with numbers is what makes me see that talent is being left behind or that it doesn’t matter so much.”
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