Football Evolution Quotes

It's almost un-American to say that you want to change football.

The evolution of football has seen a reduction in the space between the teams. It is therefore important for the modern footballer to react and be quicker than in the past, because there is more happening in the restricted space.

We can never achieve perfect football at Bayern because the game is always changing. There are always new influences and different styles.

I think, in today's football, you have to have a certain degree of technology. If not, you're living in the stone ages.

It was not that long ago when the accepted wisdom in football was that the running game had to be established - that was always the obligatory verb: established - before passes could become effective. My, we know how that has changed. Now the pass is established from the get-go, and running is an afterthought.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo has developed from a selfish goalscorer into someone who likes to pass the ball.

The league is shifting. It's becoming a smaller league, way more speed-dominant. So you're seeing more backs like me who can run between the tackles, pass-protect, catch and become matchup nightmares. You also have more receivers who are getting jet sweeps, doing different things with the ball in their hands.

Football changes and so do people.

I think football reflects our society. Our society changes. The evolution of society dictates the evolution of the game.

Something interesting has happened over the last 10 years in the Premier League. Players who once would have been discarded as expensive and too old have become important parts of title-winning squads.

I'm against all those people who say that there's still something to invent in football.

If people feel 4-4-2 is the way forward in international football, they'll have to wait until I'm out of a job.

The game has changed since the '70s as more coaches have looked at ways to make it tougher on defenses. But I'm glad my career turned out the way it did - I would have never gotten a chance to learn the defensive side of the ball.

When Bale first started at Tottenham, they were struggling to win whenever he played at left-back, but it is unbelievable how quickly things can change in football.

The world of football has changed. 'We're going to start a freshman quarterback!' 'Oooh really?!' That was taboo. It's not a shock anymore.

There's not a lot of short quarterbacks in the league, but I think there's more guys paving the way for the transition of not really caring about how big you are, how tall you are.

In this country, since footballs made from pigs' bladders were whacked into goals without nets, we've played on full-size pitches. Whatever our age.

Any coach in my era will reference or look at Guardiola's teams. If you look at the style of play, he has had a huge influence on football. And he has innovated it again.

As the West Coast offense has spread out among the NFL, as all of Bill Walsh's assistants and all of Mike Holmgren's assistants have gone on to be head coaches, it's all the West Coast offense, but it's all a little different, tailored to the personnel or the coordinators or the resources each team has.

If you look at football over the last 50 years there has been a gradual decrease in goals, you don't see too many 10-nils these days, but two, three or four goals per game is a good spectacle.

The world is changing, football should definitely too.

In my opinion, there are fewer and fewer great goalkeepers because, with respect to when I started, they have to do so much more compared with in the past.

I think England has to change the way they are teaching football because football is changing, and the method isn't changing as much.

I have good memories of my visit to China. It was a beautiful experience for me. I learned a lot of things. I hope Chinese football is still evolving, that they have the chance to sign other players to develop the league. We did our part of the job by bringing what we had to bring to Chinese football.

The way football has evolved in some of the bigger leagues in the world, you'd have to say there has become a bigger distance between the contact that you have, for everybody really. It's quite refreshing actually to experience something as simplistic as enjoying winning a game, and the players and the fans being together.