I went out of my way to watch Ronaldinho because you expected him to always do something unexpected and pull it off. It was guaranteed he would not perform the most obvious action. Predictably unpredictable and spectacular.

For the majority of wingers today, if you close your eyes and hear a kick of the ball, you can guess where the ball is going. With Ronaldinho, you couldn’t blink because if you did, you would miss something new.

It was a great distraction for the rest of the team because the opposition had to pay attention to Ronaldinho and what he would do.

Football should be producing players like Ronaldinho, but it is not.

Are you going out of your way to watch any individual player or the manager? If your answer is the manager, then there is one of the “problems.”

In order for the manager to have the ability to be unpredictable, he needs to have control. For that reason, being unpredictable as an individual player is frowned upon. You can’t step out of line. You must be hard to predict, always evolving, always ready for a surprise if you want to be competitive in a sport where all eyes are on the opposition. But that unpredictability happens through the team, not an individual.

You stand out now by being exceptionally athletically gifted. Salah, Haaland, and Mbappe are all freaks of nature. Genetic monsters.

But what happens when someone like Cole Palmer pops up? A player who is not a physical freak.

It is the Conference League Final for Chelsea against Real Betis. Chelsea are down a goal and have been uninspiring thus far in the match. Palmer has the ball on the left-hand side of the pitch, on his left, facing away from the goal, with a defender goal-side at his back. Palmer puts his left sole on the ball, looks infield, and instead of passing back, he turns unexpectedly to the byline. The expected move was a simple pass backwards, but he instead turned, accelerated away, crossed to the near post, and Nicolas Jackson headed in the goal to tie the game.

Palmer had a telling quote after the game about the goal; he said, “I was sick of getting the ball and going backwards and sideways. I thought, When I next get the ball, I’m going to go.” I cannot think of a better quote to sum up my frustrations with the current state of football at the top flight.

Football should be producing players that think like Palmer, but it is not.

I desperately want players to try to think this way. Maybe to think less. Try things. Take risks. That should not be frowned upon.