Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
That's the wrong focus. No striker besides Griezmann really stood out and that's the whole point. Giroud scored 3 which is joint second but his play is complimented Griezmann's style.
That's because the natural tendency in European football is extreme conservatism. There's so much money at stake that the emphasis has shifted from winning to not losing and this has seen huge negativity break out across the game. In the negative formations (except when Leicester City shot that to death) and the bog standard destroyers that are masquerading as football players. Every aspect of the game is regressive. And boring. Boring, boring, boring. Pep has been feted as a genius coach, but he's boring too. Some of his Barca teams played the most boring football the world has ever seen. But it was effective and got the points and so the entertainment didn't matter. The modern game has allowed non-footballers to thrive. Farmers with huge amounts of energy and zero talent. They can't pass, cross a ball, they have no intelligence and absolutely no love of the game. It's the one thing I will always give Wenger credit for. He presided over genuinely beautiful football, the way the game should be played. He still had big and powerful players but they were talented too and they had a natural flair for playing the game in such a way that engrossed the fans and made them jump out of seats and just love every minute of it. Now look at the shit that is the modern game. And look at the amount of money these turd managers and turd players are getting paid to deliver nothing. Giroud being a fine example. As said, there's no bigger Mr Average in the game.

I still get a buzz from watching that Copa final. That was football. Something the Europeans have forgotten all about as they count their money.