A lot of football today is played at a walking pace. The defender collects and they walk the ball up the pitch, slowly. Some teams play like they are a goal ahead and they are trying to kill time. I am sort of sick of it.

I understand why teams would want to create a strategy that allows them to rest with the ball. The top teams have to play a game every other day, two to three days rest. The teams that aren’t playing a game every other day don’t have that excuse.

You score one or two goals, and then you eat away at the opposing team’s patience by progressing play slowly. The issue is that it is beginning to eat away at my patience as the viewer. Even when the team wins, the win simply feels efficent.

It feels like someone could watch the highlights or look at the scoreline and say, “that must have been a great game,” but for those who watched the full ninty minutes they would know it was a boring slog with maybe a total of five to ten total minutes of actual action.

Has football become too efficent, too optomized?

Is this on the defense to push the attacking team or is this on the attack to speed up play?

Should the teams care about the viewer?

Is this more of a problem for the federations to not make them play this many games in a season so that they wouldn’t have to make these sacrafices?

Is it a sacrafice to play this way?

I would say first, it is a sacrafice, but if I was in their position, I would take that sacrafice to save the legs of my players. I’m not mad at the team, I’m mad at the situation. To last a full season, I don’t think they have a choice.

I’ll keep watching but I am fed up.