"The language of football is the language of the pit or the factory floor. All top-level players these days are supremely skilled, but still we demand that they be exhausted by the final whistle, legs leaden with effort, hair soaked with sweat."
"Distance run alone is largely meaningless as a metric. When the great Colombian coach Francisco Maturana was trying to inculcate pressing... he explained to his players that good organisation... meant they would actually be running less because the distances between them would be shorter."
"In the days before England started regularly reaching semi-finals at major tournaments, their defining quality was their headless chicken approach, doggedly chasing in the heat as slicker, more clever, more technically gifted foreigners passed the ball around them."
English football's admiration for honest effort stems from its industrial roots. Players are expected to give their all, leading to criticism when teams like Chelsea run less than opponents. This perception of laziness can be misleading, as distance run does not always correlate with effective play. Historical examples show that organized pressing can lead to shorter distances covered, challenging the notion that running more equates to better performance. England's past struggles highlight the importance of skill over mere effort in football.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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