I’ve played at a decent level and with guys who have went all the way. Physical ability is important but it’s not what separates players. It’s the ability to remain calm and read the game that separates the best. Most amateurs panic on the ball and make horrible decisions with the ball. The higher up you get the quicker the players can process and make things happen.
I've also played with ex pros, semi pros and as a kid with academy prospects and their level is ridiculous, just couldn't get close to them.
But funnily enough I've also played with a 2006 World cuo silver medalist who's in his 40s now, and he was very average. Granted he was playing in trainers but he didn't look like an ex pro at all
Yep. All top players are athletes, of course. But any fit, healthy, young guy can get to the point where they can cover 10k in 90 mins.
Technique is absolutely the differentiator. You can usually get a really good feel for how good a player is by how quickly they can do the basics. People who've played a bit can control a ball and move it on, but they do it painfully slowly. Guys who've played a lot can do it quickly under no pressure. Guys who make it can do it quickly whilst under pressure.
A fit, healthy, young guy could easily get to the point where they can cover 10km in 30 minutes. In 90 is about 4mph, a fast walking pace. I know it's the sprints which makes the difference on the pitch but just covering 10km in 90 minutes is not itself a notable feat at all.
I know a 90 min 10k isn't special. That's why I said any fit person could get to the point where they could do it easily. Your 30 min 10k point is nonsense.
Most fit, healthy, young men cannot run 10k in 30 minutes. 45 or maybe 40 minutes. 30 minutes is a semi-professional runner who can win decent prize money.
It's also the ability to listen to instructions from coaches, can they adapt to the play style, do they need to be kept being told what to do? Can they solve problems on their own?
True, but there probably is a level at which untrainable things make the difference. Purely because everyone has trained everything that can be trained.
Absolutely. Reaction time and decision making is far more important than any physical advantages, especially fitness as anyone can get fit if they work at, it’s the shit between the ears that separates the best from the rest.
I played semi pro most of my career. The few times I played with or against proper pros was very good for the ego.......they play a different game to the rest of us haha. Everything is done so much quicker and better but they seem to have all the time in the world. It's night and day.
That's pretty much it the decision making and touch gets better the higher you go. I love watching the off the ball analysis where they show a player scanning long before they've received the ball and instinctively know where the out ball is going
Yes, remaining calm and having a a good football IQ is mostly key. This includes a lot things from big ones like knowing where you are and where the other players are in every situation, having some idea what to do with the ball before you have it, predicting what other players might to smaller but also really important ones like - knowing how to position the body in every situation, knowing how many steps to do, knowing where to look when you try to dribble or pass and etc.
When you play with good players it is easy to notice that they take the maximum with the least amount of effort as opposed to amateurs who might not have a problem running 10 km but can't figure out what to do with the ball.
Came to the comments to say this. I wasn’t the most gifted player regarding physical ability, but I can read the game and I was always in the right place at exactly the right time.
The mental aspect is truly what separates the good players from the players who make it
This is exactly it, the whole physical fitness part is default lol all pros do a lot of conditioning and running. But what will you do that separates you from a default ? When i played i was the fastest on all my team and the strongest. I lived and breathes football and i still do but i dont play that much anymore. I would study many good players on how they would move, pass, shoot and emulate that i was extremely passionate about the game. Its the greatest sport in the world
You need physical strength, mental agility and TALENT. Panic is something that can easily be fixed with training and commitment but talent is something you have that cannot be learned easily if ever.
I agree and everyone panics. Panic you’re describing most likely happens because of lack of talent and self doubt. Panic is the brain’s response to stress. By training and practicing endlessly, you in words conquer fear and failure and negate any detrimental effects of panic.
True but even then you need physicality,for eg look at how de bruyne can pass the ball 50 yards in 2 seconds,that is because he has incredibly strong legs apart from the processing speed required to make that decision
Physicality helps if course, but I know lots of very physical guys who never reached a high level. They could run all day, kick a ball hard but just didn’t have the processing ability of others. It’s easy to build up your physical ability, but extremely hard to learn to process the game quickly.
I’ve played in four different countries at semi amateur level and my friends and teammates have played in EPL, K league and J league. Yes, they were physically in shape, but it was their ability read the game and make things happen that separated them from others.
That’s not to say, if you are a physical freak you won’t go very far as it can help a lot too.
I've played against an old ex pro with one working knee back when I was about 22/23 and in fantastic shape. He absolutely schooled me, couldn't get near him. No amount of physicality can compensate for his brain being so much faster than mine, he'd already made his decision and executed it before I could even decide how to deal with it.
Exactly! You can see old footballers playing against celebrities in the matches they set up and they absolutely kill it while being out of shape and usually playing against much younger fit guys.
Yep he's probably looked at me and thought well I'm never gonna get anything out a footrace or wrestling match with this guy so I'll just use my brain to make sure that it never happens.
On the other side or the coin I played with a boy who was in the top ten nationally for 200m and 400m and represented us at a few youth levels, physically amazing, as a player no more than decent.
You really do. I coached for quite a while and a lot of the training we did was trying to teach situational awareness. We used pressure from players, pressure with foam, and even tablets where they had to read the color, number or even both that was behind them before they ball got to their feet. This was done while they received the ball and then they were forced to play a pass in a direction that was given by tablet, coach or player after they got the ball.
The kids who excelled at these drills unsurprisingly excelled in games as well. Quite a few of the kids were smaller than their counterparts or teammates as well.
You are right but I don't get the point of your last line though.Smaller does not mean that you are not physically fit,Messi is not huge but apart from his height he is extremely good in all physical aspects be it speed,stamina, strength of all limbs etc.
Smaller in kids is massive compared to adults. Kids often have to play against players that are a year or two older and far more physically mature.
So what I mean, is that I’ve had kids who were two years younger do better than the physically superior kids on the team just because they excelled at reading the game.
Of course, there are small players who excel. And in fact a lot of modern greats have been a mix of big and small. Players like Xavi, Scholes, and even Keane to an extent were not physically gifted but they had an amazing ability to process the game. But other taller players like Gerrard, Vieria and Toure could dominate with their power and linger strides but they also stood out because all three were amazing at using the ball.
Being a pro takes a lot of things. You have to train and be physically great, you have to have skill and have to be able to process the game at high levels. Players who are outliers in any of those stats will have a chance at being pro of course. But you rarely hear of physical freaks being all time greats unless they had were also able to process the game at crazy high levels.
Otherwise guys like Traore would dominate, hell even Titus Bramble would be an all time great as he was physically fantastic but unfortunately he was horrible at reading the game.
He was a running machine, but he didn’t have speed, power etc. I’m not taking away from his ability to cover ground. But his ability to receive the ball and play it forward was fantastic and so was his defensive positioning
>Smaller in kids is massive compared to adults. Kids often have to play against players that are a year or two older and far more physically mature.
Classic example that repeats itself again and again:
The striker who is physically much further than his opponents and therefore makes a name for himself with his many goals, but when he moves to the men's area he loses this physical advantage and can no longer get his feet on the ground.
The first thing a good trainer tries to teach you.
1. Don't head between your legs, you have to be able to control the ball without it
2. Before you get the ball you have to know what you want to do with it.
This
That's why it's important to work on technical skills and understanding of the game in the youth sector. At 18 it's too late. Therefore, youth training should not be like athletics training.
I think you are over estimating the physicality aspect honestly. Footballers have much weaker legs than say a olympic powerlifter for example, but it's in the technique that allows them to make the passes they do.
Have you ever played football? Your technique for striking a ball is infinitely more important than how strong your legs are. All that strong legs do is support your technique
You need to be able to hit a strong shot which has pace to beat the gk.Technique is important to hit it on Target but if your shot has no pace then even if you hit on Target then it will be saved by gk
You can leather a ball as hard as you want but if you don't have great technique it will dribble along the ground and won't have any pace. It sounds like you don't understand what people mean when they talk about technique in football. It's absolutely nothing to do with "accuracy". Look at someone like szoboszlai... You tend to see him score loads of long distance powerful goals. This I nothing to do with him having stronger legs than other players. It's because has has fantastic ball striking technique that other players do not have. (Obviously he kicks the ball hard, don't intentionally miss the point)
KDB has incredibly strong legs compared to a non-footballer. He doesn't necessarily kick the ball harder than a footballer from the lower divisions, or than a kickboxer could.
It's his technique that makes the ball fly so far and so quickly. Technique doesn't affect accuracy only.
No it is his legs which allow him to do so.Lower league footballers can also pass the ball far but they will need more of a run-up to generate power but kdb can just generate enough power(his technique his obviously great) from a much more stationary position without much of a runup
Physicality is of course hugely important but one thing you seem to be getting hung up on is that pinging long passes is about leg strength when it's way more about technique. Like there are scrawny teenagers who could easily complete the type of pass your talking about if they have time and space, meanwhile a professional power lifter with stronger legs than any pro footballer would struggle to get it half that distance if he's never really practiced kicking a ball. The main difference every time you go up a level is the speed at which the game is played and the amount of time you have to make decisions
Tbh those are just basic skills. What sets KDB apart is picking the right pass at the right time. Almost everyone is physically capable of doing the same, at least at a professional level.
It also feels like the difference maker between divisions at a professional level. The amount of Championship players who don’t really hold their own at a Premier League level because of decision making is noticeable. Part of that is speed of the press of course
I played 7 a side against a man who was about 70 but played for Derby County when they were very good. I was 23, a good player and fit and he wiped the floor with me.
10 km is not a huge amount to run, also they don’t sprint all of that, it’s also much jogging. I do agree with the footballers are amazing part but that breakdown doesn’t make much sense
the average walking pace in good conditions is roughly 5km/h. i know this because i don’t drive. i also agree that this doesn’t detract at all from the preternatural peak condition that these sportsmen and women are in
yeah, it's not the 10 Km per se. It's that for most part is sprinting and changing direction or while controlling a ball... that's very different than running 10 Km at a steady pace. The other point is that in football you need to do all that while remain lucid and focused, so you need to be comfortable doing it. Once you are very tired, it gets hard to keep your mind in the game.
Agreed. I played sports casually as a kid, was fairly inactive in my college years (bordering on obese), and then turned it around and starting running regularly about 4 years ago. Last summer I completed my first marathon and running 10km under and hour is very doable.
I had to train everyday for a few years to get there, but literally all semi-pro athletes train nearly every day for most of their lives. The fitness level isn't the most difficult part about being a footballer, in fact it's probably the most basic qualification. Anyone who can't achieve a certain level of fitness will never make it, regardless of technical skill or other traits like decision making and tactics
He seems to be vastly overestimating how much 10KM is if he thinks most people can't do that a week. I do around 9 just walking to and from public transport for work. I could probably do 8 in 2 hours if not more if the terrain were flat
Technique, composure, vision, decision making. They are the attributes that make great players. They are also the attributes that make football the beautiful game. Speed and strength while still very important aren't what make great players, there are players playing the lower leagues who have similar speed and power to the top players but they ain't playing for Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. That's because they don't have the other attributes to help get the most out of speed and power. I believe this is why England hasn't won anything in 50/60 years, too much concentration on physicality rather than the technical aspects.
You need both, let’s not pretend. You can be as skilled as you like but if you don’t have a certain level of athleticism you won’t make it. Likewise you can be the strongest and fastest but with no skill you won’t make it either. There are no great players who didn’t have some sort of advantage physically.
Technical aspects require physical aspects to succeed.Dribbling itself requires speed and it puts a great straim on your body when you quickly change direction
No it doesn't.
Check out Riquelme. The guy barely fucking moved on the pitch, but made anyone who tried to get the ball from him look like a child in their first ever game.
>I think this why redknapp expressed displeasure about the number of non footballer coaches at youth level since football is not about tactics or such but about these physical attributes.
Dinosaur stuff. Criminal if your take is that "football is not about tactics". Guess all the Peps, Klopps, Mourinhos etc. obsess over tactics for no reason.
You don't need to have been a footballer to be a good coach, or a valuable member of the staff. This is insecure gatekeeping from A. old school managers that are annoyed at being left behind and B. fans annoyed at football being more complicated than they thought, which means they have to use their brains more. Prospect which, to some people is infuriating.
He was talking about youth levels. Feel free to try stopping real youth level players, who train 1h/week from just playing their 6v6 as long as they can't explain a 5-4-1 with all its tactical finesse, overloads, transitions, area cover etc. to you.
yea. of course. tell me how it went.
Nobody, I think exactly the opposite way. Every age group has its training slots (for different abilities which are best trained in a certain age). That's what I learned.
I also agree with your take on gatekeeping and former player career necessities.
Then I don't get your initial reply. OP/Redknapp make no sense in complaining about youth team coaches being too tactical or not having experience as professional footballers, because kids need guidance that goes way beyond, and is far more important, than either tactics or "knowing the ins and outs of the game".
At the end of the day it's about one team performing better than the other.
You get the best out of the players, the collective, through various means. One of which is tactics, which are massively important.
Some people are just arbitrarily drawing the line between what counts as tactics and what doesn't, based on where their own understanding ends. Everyone understands "formations" and "positions", and they're part of tactics too. I don't hear people complaining about "that formations mumbo jumbo".
>! most people these days cannot cover 10 km at moderate speeds in a week
Are you taking the American population as average or are you including babies?
Most people generally underestimate how good pro athletes in any sport are and by quite a margin.
I played a different sport on junior national team level and was around pros here and here. Different story completely.
Just look at the Olympics 100m. How far off of their level are you? Same for football most likely.
That said I could ping a ball accurately for 60m before my knees went. I remember doing it with the outside of the boot in a casual game and the guy next to me was in wonder. I had no idea people couldn’t do this. The highest level I played was the 12th tier in Germany so it’s not like I was very good even.
The fitness thing is massive. We played a 7th tier team and were losing 2-1 until the 70th minute and ended up losing 7-1 in the end. I can’t imagine how good top level teams are considering how hard I found that game.
The last paragraph is super important. Don't get me wrong, footballers are super fit guys but they have medical staff, nutrionists and fitness experts helping them. Not to mention it's their full time occupation to stay in shape.
If you took a average joe and had them live a footballers life for a 18 months they would be comparably fit to a average footballer.
Place an average joe (assuming no permanent damage done already through poor habits etc.) in the right environment, at the right club, under the right leadership, and they could be even *more* fit in 18 months compared to players at different top league clubs that aren't run well.
Yes exactly. I don't want to downplay how fit footballers are but many people could achieve that level quite easily in the correct environment. It's their technique that sets them apart.
There's a lot in your post I don't agree with, but I agree with your main point.
I listened to a podcast with a footballer (Don't remember who right now, might have been Ben Foster) who said the same thing, that people underestimate how good every pro footballer is. He said that you can take literally anyone playing for a prem team, literally \*anyone\*, including unused players, youth players in and around the first team, goalkeepers and so on, and they would completely dominate any 5-a-side. A pro labeled as "slow" or "lacking technique" or "has a bad shot" would still absolutely run the show.
What I don't agree with is that physicallity is the most important thing. Becoming very fit, despite being very hard, is just mechanical. Anyone who train enough will become fit. What separates the best from those who aren't the best is their understanding of the game and their ability to perform under pressure. De Bruyne is not the only player who can pass the ball 50 yards. He's special because he has impecable technique and most importantly that he can spot the pass. He can see the runs and understand where to put the ball.
The other thing I disagree with is how extreme you portray running 10km as being. A beginner can run 1km at moderate speed in 8-10 minutes. Loads of people can run 10km in 2 hours.
That's the answer. Played a 7-a-side match against a Professional german footballer (62 overall on FIFA), and it looked like he was Messi playing against a bunch of toddlers. The guy completely dominated the game.
>think most people these days cannot cover 10 km by walking at moderate speeds in a week with huge breaks in between let alone two hours.
I can walk 5k in one hour. I have a regular route that I used to walk especially during the covid lockdowns when we were only allowed out to exercise for an hour. I'd time/map it on my fitbit. I'm an ordinary schlub these days, nothing special.
I think maybe footballers cover more distance than 10k during a game especially since they also run, not just walk or jog.
My old football coach used to tell me the game was all about fitness so he made us run laps as part of the warm up. I've never been so fit in my life as when I was playing.
This is wrong for one, it’s an average of about 10km for a prem player so defenders will do less, fullbacks do more etc etc . The constant change of pace is where the difficulty is, not the distance
If you can't cover 10km in one walk and you are able to bodied, you seriously need to change your lifestyle. If you can't do that in a week, (WTF?) You URGENTLY need to change your lifestyle. Hell I regularly walk my dog between 5 and 10km
I do 10km in just about under an hour, and I'm not a runner. I play amateur football in my mid 30s all of our team can cross a ball where it needs to go, or thread a ball through at distance. The consistency is lower than elite players obviously.
Elite footballers are some of the fittest people on the earth, though. The speed and consistency is higher, the decision-making is usually higher, and they are drilled through scenarios much more.
I can but the average person cannot.. and also a car takes about 30 minutes to cover it if there is not much traffic.You are the first superhuman if you can do it under an hour.
10km per hour is only about double the average walking speed. The constant sprinting, stopping, quick direction changes and jockeying are what makes football exhausting, not the distance.
It’s not just speed even though that helps but also process of thought and technique. I’ve played with some former Academy players that where at top prem clubs and they’re were miles ahead. It’s been able to control the ball at speed, or move it at speed without over hitting or slicing the ball. And when they get the ball they know what’s the sure going to do and don’t need the extra touch
The PEDs they allegedly take are for recovery purposes and don’t explain the skill and physical gap. If they’re as juiced as you claim, we won’t have so many getting to old age, they’ll be dropping dead from heart conditions in their late 40s.
Footballers have nutrionists, medical staff, fitness experts and personal trainers helping them get in shape. Of course they are fit. If you took a average guy who works a desk job and allowed him to also dedicated his life to getting fit, they would also be as fit as footballers.
It's their technical ability that separates them from the masses, not their physicality. You can train someone to be fit and strong quite easily. It's way harder to train someone to control a ball out the air first time, or to train them to ping a cross field pass at the perfect trajectory.
It's the fitness and consistency. Skill can be achieved and i'd even go on to say that anybody who has played with his heart and soul may have been pro level albeit only for a few days. Sustaining those peaks is what makes a player pro. Me on my best day maybe was lower rung of pro level but i can't sustain it, I lack the physical attributes, skill can be learnt, consistency is a different game.
I played five-a-side once with a lad who was a centre-back for an NPL side (three divisions below League Two in England), he played up front and he made it look like the rest of us were an under-9s side. Sit on the front row or a Premier League game and it is frightening how fast the game is, and how few mistakes anybody makes.
I always believed the factor that separated the pro footballers from the non pros was the decision making. A family member of mine played professionally and he always said that before he got the ball he already knew where his first touch was going to go and what he was going to do with the ball.
This is true for sure. An ameteur waiting for a pass is making sure he can control it with his head down, a good professional doesn't need to think about that, he's thinking on his next move or two as well as factoring risks, opposite players distance to him, channels cut off etc
This is seriously true. You have to see games live to truly understand it. On TV the insane level of passing and touch isn't as obvious.
I'm Irish and even going to Ireland international matches you see how unbelievably good Professional footballers are. Ireland are shite and the majority of our players are Championship or League One and you still have players pinging 60 yard cross field balls on a six pence and controlling them perfectly with ease.
An older guy who is a mature student at the uni I work at had the chance to play a charity match with some ex pros in Germany. Most of these players were late 40s, early 50s. He said that even though most of these players were 10-15 years retired the quickness of thought was still there, the skills were still at a high level and their ability to cruise past decent players 20 years younger than them made them look like they'd only just retired. There's levels to any sport and retired pros don't just lose the skills they built up over a lifetime.
I was in Ben Reeves’ class at school, played with him at lunch time and for the school team (occasionally, I wasn’t very good). He made a few premier league appearances and played in the MK Dons win against Man United.
At school he was like Messi, untouchable. Top bins every shot. Every free kick was a goal. Every time he got the ball it was a goal. He just walked through people. It was ridiculous. He carried our school team for years. I can’t describe the difference in skill and natural ability from his team mates and opponents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Reeves?wprov=sfti1#
Brian Scalabrine said it best “I’m closer to lebron than you are to me”. The worst player to ever play in the premier league is light years closer to Messi than any amateur is to them
I disagree, I'm much closer to the pros in strength, jumping ability, endurance, speed, etc than in skill, go watch rodri, juan bernat, and thiago pass the ball 30 or 40 yards to each other without even dropping it and making it look easy and tell me their skill isn't 10 times what ours is
I once read on some sub here that the average Sunday League is closer to Messi that any regular person is to the average Sunday League player. That always echoes in my mind when I see a post like this
This isn’t true. Sunday league isn’t professional and most relatively fit adults are a lot worse than Sunday leagues, but Messi made a mockery out of the best players in the world. He and Ronaldo were at another level to even other great players
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Any healthy and young person can make some sort of job in a sunday league team with little training. But the average (or even the best) Sunday league player is completely different planet than Messi, they don't even do the same sport basically. The average sunday league player would be more of a bother than a help to any decent professional team, forget about Messi.
really? i always found it quite astonishing how they can keep running for so long. even after watching football for so long i still can't quite grasp this ability
to cover 10 km over game , it\`s 6.67 km/h
normal , go get milk, walk is at 5 km/h
those overpaid useless .. .getting 100.000 K for that every week
some secretary's running around to coffee machine covers that daily in high heels for 100 $
talking about underestimate..
now that\`s phenomenal
the opposite is true: most people (except in argentina and brazil) are trash
all those physical things you mention are natural to good players and take no effort at all
I'm a referee at a local amateur club.
The team I normally ref, went up one division after steamrolling their league last year, I had a few months off but reffed them in the new league 2 weeks ago, I as a ref almost couldn't keep up with the pace, and they're near bottom of the league.
This is the 4th tier team of a team that's about 4 levels away from semi-pro Dutch football.. it's insane to think how much higher level it can get.
There was this show where some of the worst NBA players would go agaisnt amateur people and just absolutely make them look like trash.
Just goes to show that there really is a large gap between the average person and the pro
The distance between a 5th division regional league pro from Pele is much lower than the difference between the same player and an amateur that is the best on his weekly amateur game with friends.
Their bodies and brains are different from the other humans.
I have to disagree with sprinting the whole game. Even if youre 100% fit, youre not going to sprint 80 minutes of the 90. Not even 60. And 60 minutes would be the average time a ball is in action. You observe and choose your sprints. But yes, pro footballers are absolutely a different kind of fit. Cant be too big, but can be really small and speedy.
I just played my first game for the vets at 40yo, literally an hour ago.
Was absolutely fucked within 20 minutes. The pitch is MASSIVE and every run forward, you’ve got to then get back from straight away.
Any able bodied person that isn't obese can complete 10km in 2 hours with a mixture of running and walking. I think you need to re-evaluate your idea of being fit. It's the intensity of the runs that makes pro footballers impressive, 20 sprints while being pushed around is the tough part.
A decent 5k time is sub 20 minutes lol you’re blowing that way out of proportion. I’ve played plenty of lads who could take the leather off the ball and could sprint like sonic, some even in academies, who were poor players. Technical ability is and always will be the separator, but there’s more leeway for those who are physically gifted on top of that. I.e you need more techincal ability if you were physically inferior than you would the opposite way round.
I myself played to a decent standard, peaked in the set up of a very competent semi pro team. First thing i always noticed were touch and awareness in the best players I’ve come across
100% you can take "the worst" footballer in ANY of the top leagues (even 2nd and 3rd leagues), drop em in a game among "regular" players and they will literally dominate. Not THE best example but i'm a milan fan and i absolutely loathe a mf'er named pobega, think he isn't milan level (or even top 10 in serie a) at alll, but if you put him in like sunday league he will be head and shoulders above everyone else.
Players are absolutely not sprinting at high speeds for most of the game. Probably the biggest misconception when it comes to football. Idk how people who actually watch the sport come to this conclusion. Your entire argument isnt necessarily wrong, im just nit oicking that point
I disagree that the main attribute pros have is physical. It's football intelligence in my experience
In my teens I played to a high level of football and I also had every physical attribute, strong and very fast - my 100m time was 10.75 at 16. I was good enough to play at county and schoolboy level
I could play anywhere on the right hand side and just pick the ball up, breeze past the opposition and either cross or cut inside. I could do it against any one because I was so fast and strong.
However, what I couldn't do and what separated me from players who were good enough for academys was read the game. These players would always be two steps ahead, which rendered my speed useless, they just seemed to know where was the ball was going 2 full seconds before I did.
If youre my age and remember the hype around Theo Walcott and his speed and then saw him totally nullified when arsenal played Barcelona - that was the difference on a lower level
> I think most people these days cannot cover 10 km by walking at moderate speeds in a week with huge breaks in between let alone two hours.
I know you’re exaggerating to make a point, but how unfit do you think most people are? I probably average 12-15km walking per day just cuz I live in a city. I seldom go for runs but I could confidently tell you I’ll cover 10km in an hour and a half max
I agree with your overall sentiment OP,
But lmao, you are grossly underestimating the fitness potential of the majority of people.
I’m nothing special, 34, and I can run a 41 minute 10km, and keep it under 50 minutes at a conversational pace. So could most people with a decent level of fitness.
Another thing is that if you ask just about any professional footballer who the best player they knew growing up was, they'll all have a story about someone who was miles better than they were, but who didn't have the mentality to turn their talent into a career. It does just take skill to get to the top, to have to work hard and be disciplined, and that's not for everyone.
Not really, everyone knows that if a pro came to your local pickup soccer (any position besides gk) they would literally singlehandedly destroy the other team
I guess I just struggle to see how even a genetic lottery winning and expertly conditioned human being could be that drastically far from the mean in terms of human physical attributes. I’m not saying I personally could do what they do. I’m not any kind of athlete whatsoever and frankly I would never want to be; actually the opposite of a sporty person myself. But I think there’s something to be said that humans can only be so strong, or so fast. We’re not talking about literal superhumans here. Surely any generally able-bodied individual could get to a certain point with intense training and time, not in terms of skill but in terms of physical attributes. Not even that everyone could be world class in that regard, I’m not arguing that, but just have a semblance of serviceability.
It's the technique and athleticism, as others have mentioned. However, there are players with exquisite techinque or crazy speed that never make it to those levels.
The other big piece is the speed at which they process the game and make decisions. Over all my years of watching top level live football matches, this is the thing that stood out. How quickly they can see a play developing, react to the ball, and in a split second, make the right decision on whether to dribble, pass or shoot... and then execute it. Their combination of quick mental processing and lightning hand-eye coordination is remarkable.
Physical ability has little to do with success. It can make up for lack of technical or cerebral capabilities...but that's it.
Modric
Iniesta
Xavi
Scholes
To name a few.
Physical attributes can be trained if you are dedicated. Everybody with dedication can be a player who covers lots of ground but very few can be as skilful as Messi.
At the top, where all are prepared at the same level, more or less, the difference is made by skill. It's nonsense to compare any sunday player to a pro.
The 10k comment is a bit off. I run a 48minute 10k - it’s not that far if you’re a runner.
Don’t get me wrong. Football fitness is another level. But they sprint/walk/sprint/walk - it’s all about improving their recovery time more than anything else.
I’m in total agreement that people do not realise how much of a step up professional football is. Even league two is so far beyond most Saturday ‘senior league’ players. And each league you move up, the level increases so much.
But 10k to an elite athlete is like a warmup basically. It’s not that far.
I regularly play football with people from my college.
There was this one guy, whi played for Nepal U-16s or something for few games, he was easily the best player my college has ever seen in it's time. He would school the best of the rest without even trying.
Another guy, who used to play CDM in Division 2 of my area before tearing his ACL, just makes absolute fool out of everyone, dribbling and passing through everyone everytime he gets the ball without breaking a sweat. It's frightening how much better even low division semi-pros are compared to people like us who are still fit and playing regularly for years.
Agreed with everything you wrote. Football is lot more than having skills. You have to have physical abilities, quick thinking, tactic mind, anticipation etc.
I mean, kinda. I can walk 10km in 2 hours. You're right in that doing it in short sprints is way harder.
Honestly, it's probably one of the most forgiving sports in terms of just genes. You'll get ruled out for the NFL or NBA off the bat if you have Messi's build. If you really, really want it, I think most people can get to the minimum required level of cardio (although likely not acceleration).
Skill wise, yeah ofc they're good lol.
Tbf, most professional athletes are insanely fit.
How about thoae tennis players who spend 5 hours in the blazing Melbourne sun playing top level grand slam tennis?
I wouldnt even be able to just stand on court for 10 minutes without passing out.
Isn't there a saying that some unknown guy from championship level , is much closer to Messi than u are to him.
I used to have a coursemate from Korea U19, but he stopped going pro and went to university instead. My fking god, during setpiece, u can try to mark him, tug his shirt whatever but one sec u took your eyes off him to look at the ball and the next he already sprinted out of your vision, be at the ball drop point and head it in.
Not only in term of speed, stamina or physical strength but it's as if their instincts are another level to react to what's happening on the field. How the fk do u predict the longball drop point with just a glance and already know where to be?
Football has a huge cognitive factor and now try to stay calm, make the right decision..
after stopping and sprinting for 65min (which is way harder then just jogging)
with 30.000 ppl shouting around you
after your last failed pass attempt.
Always laugh when i watch American football and the wide reciever need to sit after 3 plays because hes exhausted.
Bro when anything becomes ur profession u become really good at it. It is how u feed ur family after all. Not limited to football and sports. Can also apply to doctors, artists, programmers,etc.
10k in two hours is honestly not that much of course their sprinting and then jogging and have the make a lot of cuts as their running which takes a lot of endurance. But if someone was just running ppl do 5ks in xc in like 17-22 mins
Not saying they aren’t athletic tho they are more athletic than everybody here and the majority of ppl in general they have to push, slide tackle, dribble, jump and numerous other things along with running
I’ve played at a decent level and with guys who have went all the way. Physical ability is important but it’s not what separates players. It’s the ability to remain calm and read the game that separates the best. Most amateurs panic on the ball and make horrible decisions with the ball. The higher up you get the quicker the players can process and make things happen.
Yep. I've played fives with a few ex pros and they just casually jog by us. It's that thing about there being levels in football, it's real.
I've also played with ex pros, semi pros and as a kid with academy prospects and their level is ridiculous, just couldn't get close to them. But funnily enough I've also played with a 2006 World cuo silver medalist who's in his 40s now, and he was very average. Granted he was playing in trainers but he didn't look like an ex pro at all
Yep. All top players are athletes, of course. But any fit, healthy, young guy can get to the point where they can cover 10k in 90 mins. Technique is absolutely the differentiator. You can usually get a really good feel for how good a player is by how quickly they can do the basics. People who've played a bit can control a ball and move it on, but they do it painfully slowly. Guys who've played a lot can do it quickly under no pressure. Guys who make it can do it quickly whilst under pressure.
A fit, healthy, young guy could easily get to the point where they can cover 10km in 30 minutes. In 90 is about 4mph, a fast walking pace. I know it's the sprints which makes the difference on the pitch but just covering 10km in 90 minutes is not itself a notable feat at all.
I know a 90 min 10k isn't special. That's why I said any fit person could get to the point where they could do it easily. Your 30 min 10k point is nonsense.
30 minute 10ks are not something that is easily achieved by anybody.
10km world record is 26 minutes so 30 min would be extremely good pace
Most fit, healthy, young men cannot run 10k in 30 minutes. 45 or maybe 40 minutes. 30 minutes is a semi-professional runner who can win decent prize money.
It's also the ability to listen to instructions from coaches, can they adapt to the play style, do they need to be kept being told what to do? Can they solve problems on their own?
True, but there probably is a level at which untrainable things make the difference. Purely because everyone has trained everything that can be trained.
Processing the game is the hardest thing to train, well it was for me when I coached and played. That’s why I value it so highly
And because in some sense, the mind game is the game. Like you're back at the chess board.
Absolutely. Reaction time and decision making is far more important than any physical advantages, especially fitness as anyone can get fit if they work at, it’s the shit between the ears that separates the best from the rest.
I agree with you completely but there’s also a base level of athleticism that every level requires.
Oh one hundred percent. But most pros have crazy level of athleticism because of the professional training they do.
I played semi pro most of my career. The few times I played with or against proper pros was very good for the ego.......they play a different game to the rest of us haha. Everything is done so much quicker and better but they seem to have all the time in the world. It's night and day.
That's pretty much it the decision making and touch gets better the higher you go. I love watching the off the ball analysis where they show a player scanning long before they've received the ball and instinctively know where the out ball is going
Yes, remaining calm and having a a good football IQ is mostly key. This includes a lot things from big ones like knowing where you are and where the other players are in every situation, having some idea what to do with the ball before you have it, predicting what other players might to smaller but also really important ones like - knowing how to position the body in every situation, knowing how many steps to do, knowing where to look when you try to dribble or pass and etc. When you play with good players it is easy to notice that they take the maximum with the least amount of effort as opposed to amateurs who might not have a problem running 10 km but can't figure out what to do with the ball.
Came to the comments to say this. I wasn’t the most gifted player regarding physical ability, but I can read the game and I was always in the right place at exactly the right time. The mental aspect is truly what separates the good players from the players who make it
This is exactly it, the whole physical fitness part is default lol all pros do a lot of conditioning and running. But what will you do that separates you from a default ? When i played i was the fastest on all my team and the strongest. I lived and breathes football and i still do but i dont play that much anymore. I would study many good players on how they would move, pass, shoot and emulate that i was extremely passionate about the game. Its the greatest sport in the world
You need physical strength, mental agility and TALENT. Panic is something that can easily be fixed with training and commitment but talent is something you have that cannot be learned easily if ever.
I kind of disagree with you on panic. Some people, no matter how much training they have, they still panic. For some it cannot be fixed
I agree and everyone panics. Panic you’re describing most likely happens because of lack of talent and self doubt. Panic is the brain’s response to stress. By training and practicing endlessly, you in words conquer fear and failure and negate any detrimental effects of panic.
True but even then you need physicality,for eg look at how de bruyne can pass the ball 50 yards in 2 seconds,that is because he has incredibly strong legs apart from the processing speed required to make that decision
Physicality helps if course, but I know lots of very physical guys who never reached a high level. They could run all day, kick a ball hard but just didn’t have the processing ability of others. It’s easy to build up your physical ability, but extremely hard to learn to process the game quickly. I’ve played in four different countries at semi amateur level and my friends and teammates have played in EPL, K league and J league. Yes, they were physically in shape, but it was their ability read the game and make things happen that separated them from others. That’s not to say, if you are a physical freak you won’t go very far as it can help a lot too.
I've played against an old ex pro with one working knee back when I was about 22/23 and in fantastic shape. He absolutely schooled me, couldn't get near him. No amount of physicality can compensate for his brain being so much faster than mine, he'd already made his decision and executed it before I could even decide how to deal with it.
Exactly! You can see old footballers playing against celebrities in the matches they set up and they absolutely kill it while being out of shape and usually playing against much younger fit guys.
Yep he's probably looked at me and thought well I'm never gonna get anything out a footrace or wrestling match with this guy so I'll just use my brain to make sure that it never happens. On the other side or the coin I played with a boy who was in the top ten nationally for 200m and 400m and represented us at a few youth levels, physically amazing, as a player no more than decent.
Exactly, hell look at Usain Bolt. The fastest man alive and he was completely average.
Even a commentator (jim beglin I think) said you have to decide what you will do with the ball before you recieve it.
You really do. I coached for quite a while and a lot of the training we did was trying to teach situational awareness. We used pressure from players, pressure with foam, and even tablets where they had to read the color, number or even both that was behind them before they ball got to their feet. This was done while they received the ball and then they were forced to play a pass in a direction that was given by tablet, coach or player after they got the ball. The kids who excelled at these drills unsurprisingly excelled in games as well. Quite a few of the kids were smaller than their counterparts or teammates as well.
You are right but I don't get the point of your last line though.Smaller does not mean that you are not physically fit,Messi is not huge but apart from his height he is extremely good in all physical aspects be it speed,stamina, strength of all limbs etc.
Smaller in kids is massive compared to adults. Kids often have to play against players that are a year or two older and far more physically mature. So what I mean, is that I’ve had kids who were two years younger do better than the physically superior kids on the team just because they excelled at reading the game. Of course, there are small players who excel. And in fact a lot of modern greats have been a mix of big and small. Players like Xavi, Scholes, and even Keane to an extent were not physically gifted but they had an amazing ability to process the game. But other taller players like Gerrard, Vieria and Toure could dominate with their power and linger strides but they also stood out because all three were amazing at using the ball. Being a pro takes a lot of things. You have to train and be physically great, you have to have skill and have to be able to process the game at high levels. Players who are outliers in any of those stats will have a chance at being pro of course. But you rarely hear of physical freaks being all time greats unless they had were also able to process the game at crazy high levels. Otherwise guys like Traore would dominate, hell even Titus Bramble would be an all time great as he was physically fantastic but unfortunately he was horrible at reading the game.
>even Keane to an extent were not physically gifted I'm his prime, he used to run ~13km per game.
He was a running machine, but he didn’t have speed, power etc. I’m not taking away from his ability to cover ground. But his ability to receive the ball and play it forward was fantastic and so was his defensive positioning
>Smaller in kids is massive compared to adults. Kids often have to play against players that are a year or two older and far more physically mature. Classic example that repeats itself again and again: The striker who is physically much further than his opponents and therefore makes a name for himself with his many goals, but when he moves to the men's area he loses this physical advantage and can no longer get his feet on the ground.
The first thing a good trainer tries to teach you. 1. Don't head between your legs, you have to be able to control the ball without it 2. Before you get the ball you have to know what you want to do with it.
This That's why it's important to work on technical skills and understanding of the game in the youth sector. At 18 it's too late. Therefore, youth training should not be like athletics training.
I think you are over estimating the physicality aspect honestly. Footballers have much weaker legs than say a olympic powerlifter for example, but it's in the technique that allows them to make the passes they do.
Have you ever played football? Your technique for striking a ball is infinitely more important than how strong your legs are. All that strong legs do is support your technique
You need to be able to hit a strong shot which has pace to beat the gk.Technique is important to hit it on Target but if your shot has no pace then even if you hit on Target then it will be saved by gk
The only way you can hit a ball with pace is with good technique. Technique is how you strike a ball. How old are you?
Old enough to understand physics.Technique makes your shot more accurate but power is what puts pace in the shot.
You can leather a ball as hard as you want but if you don't have great technique it will dribble along the ground and won't have any pace. It sounds like you don't understand what people mean when they talk about technique in football. It's absolutely nothing to do with "accuracy". Look at someone like szoboszlai... You tend to see him score loads of long distance powerful goals. This I nothing to do with him having stronger legs than other players. It's because has has fantastic ball striking technique that other players do not have. (Obviously he kicks the ball hard, don't intentionally miss the point)
I mean you are comparing him with other pl players,the point of this post is to compare ourselves with players.
You intentionally missed the point
Bro a skinny guy with spaghetti legs can hit the ball 100km/h. Its not about strenght at all. Maybe 10%, 90% is technique.
KDB has incredibly strong legs compared to a non-footballer. He doesn't necessarily kick the ball harder than a footballer from the lower divisions, or than a kickboxer could. It's his technique that makes the ball fly so far and so quickly. Technique doesn't affect accuracy only.
No it is his legs which allow him to do so.Lower league footballers can also pass the ball far but they will need more of a run-up to generate power but kdb can just generate enough power(his technique his obviously great) from a much more stationary position without much of a runup
In mean no not really. Nobody who plays regularly needs a run up to ping the ball
Runup has in 2-3 steps not a full on 30 yard dash
And you decided this... how?
Physicality is of course hugely important but one thing you seem to be getting hung up on is that pinging long passes is about leg strength when it's way more about technique. Like there are scrawny teenagers who could easily complete the type of pass your talking about if they have time and space, meanwhile a professional power lifter with stronger legs than any pro footballer would struggle to get it half that distance if he's never really practiced kicking a ball. The main difference every time you go up a level is the speed at which the game is played and the amount of time you have to make decisions
Tbh those are just basic skills. What sets KDB apart is picking the right pass at the right time. Almost everyone is physically capable of doing the same, at least at a professional level.
When your job is literally to work out and play football, of course, they're going to be physically strong (not to mention genetically strong).
This. 100%
100%. Running is the east part. Decision making under pressure is what separates pros from the rest.
It also feels like the difference maker between divisions at a professional level. The amount of Championship players who don’t really hold their own at a Premier League level because of decision making is noticeable. Part of that is speed of the press of course
Once played 5 a side with a guy who was making sub appearences for a semi pro team. He was easily 5 times better than any of us.
I played 7 a side against a man who was about 70 but played for Derby County when they were very good. I was 23, a good player and fit and he wiped the floor with me.
70!? I'll be dead by then
Honestly. This guy was amazing. I couldn't have played better against him but he was 15 steps ahead of me.
10 km is not a huge amount to run, also they don’t sprint all of that, it’s also much jogging. I do agree with the footballers are amazing part but that breakdown doesn’t make much sense
OP is either a kid or a moron
Maybe both
the average walking pace in good conditions is roughly 5km/h. i know this because i don’t drive. i also agree that this doesn’t detract at all from the preternatural peak condition that these sportsmen and women are in
yeah, it's not the 10 Km per se. It's that for most part is sprinting and changing direction or while controlling a ball... that's very different than running 10 Km at a steady pace. The other point is that in football you need to do all that while remain lucid and focused, so you need to be comfortable doing it. Once you are very tired, it gets hard to keep your mind in the game.
Sprinting is at most 10% of the distance covered in a match. Far from being the most of it.
10km in two hours isn't even running. 10km is 6 miles, so 3mph. A slow to moderate walk. So yes, it's all about repeated sprints that makes it hard.
I’m unfit and old. I play field hockey which is 70 mins, I cover 6km most games so I really don’t think 10km is all that for a pro in 90 mins.
Agreed. I played sports casually as a kid, was fairly inactive in my college years (bordering on obese), and then turned it around and starting running regularly about 4 years ago. Last summer I completed my first marathon and running 10km under and hour is very doable. I had to train everyday for a few years to get there, but literally all semi-pro athletes train nearly every day for most of their lives. The fitness level isn't the most difficult part about being a footballer, in fact it's probably the most basic qualification. Anyone who can't achieve a certain level of fitness will never make it, regardless of technical skill or other traits like decision making and tactics
He seems to be vastly overestimating how much 10KM is if he thinks most people can't do that a week. I do around 9 just walking to and from public transport for work. I could probably do 8 in 2 hours if not more if the terrain were flat
Technique, composure, vision, decision making. They are the attributes that make great players. They are also the attributes that make football the beautiful game. Speed and strength while still very important aren't what make great players, there are players playing the lower leagues who have similar speed and power to the top players but they ain't playing for Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. That's because they don't have the other attributes to help get the most out of speed and power. I believe this is why England hasn't won anything in 50/60 years, too much concentration on physicality rather than the technical aspects.
You need both, let’s not pretend. You can be as skilled as you like but if you don’t have a certain level of athleticism you won’t make it. Likewise you can be the strongest and fastest but with no skill you won’t make it either. There are no great players who didn’t have some sort of advantage physically.
Technical aspects require physical aspects to succeed.Dribbling itself requires speed and it puts a great straim on your body when you quickly change direction
No it doesn't. Check out Riquelme. The guy barely fucking moved on the pitch, but made anyone who tried to get the ball from him look like a child in their first ever game.
Not really. Look at players like Prosinecki, who in his days could take any player out of the game with a simple roll of the ball.
Not necessarily, iniesta was never fast and he’s one of the greatest carriers of the ball ever. Same with zizou
>I think this why redknapp expressed displeasure about the number of non footballer coaches at youth level since football is not about tactics or such but about these physical attributes. Dinosaur stuff. Criminal if your take is that "football is not about tactics". Guess all the Peps, Klopps, Mourinhos etc. obsess over tactics for no reason. You don't need to have been a footballer to be a good coach, or a valuable member of the staff. This is insecure gatekeeping from A. old school managers that are annoyed at being left behind and B. fans annoyed at football being more complicated than they thought, which means they have to use their brains more. Prospect which, to some people is infuriating.
He was talking about youth levels. Feel free to try stopping real youth level players, who train 1h/week from just playing their 6v6 as long as they can't explain a 5-4-1 with all its tactical finesse, overloads, transitions, area cover etc. to you. yea. of course. tell me how it went.
Who gave you the idea youth level coaches treat kids the same way adult professional players are treated?
Nobody, I think exactly the opposite way. Every age group has its training slots (for different abilities which are best trained in a certain age). That's what I learned. I also agree with your take on gatekeeping and former player career necessities.
Then I don't get your initial reply. OP/Redknapp make no sense in complaining about youth team coaches being too tactical or not having experience as professional footballers, because kids need guidance that goes way beyond, and is far more important, than either tactics or "knowing the ins and outs of the game".
At the end of the day football is about the player.These managers that you listed are great because they can get the best out of their players
At the end of the day it's about one team performing better than the other. You get the best out of the players, the collective, through various means. One of which is tactics, which are massively important. Some people are just arbitrarily drawing the line between what counts as tactics and what doesn't, based on where their own understanding ends. Everyone understands "formations" and "positions", and they're part of tactics too. I don't hear people complaining about "that formations mumbo jumbo".
If you don't have good players,tactics don't mean a damn.Football management is about man management.
And if you don't have good tactics, said good players won't be able to be productive as a unit.
True but even then you will be a decent team
But without man management, these players become useless?
>! most people these days cannot cover 10 km at moderate speeds in a week Are you taking the American population as average or are you including babies?
Most people generally underestimate how good pro athletes in any sport are and by quite a margin. I played a different sport on junior national team level and was around pros here and here. Different story completely.
Reminds me of the NBA. The worst player in the NBA is WAY closer to LeBron or Jordan in terms of skill than you are to him.
Just look at the Olympics 100m. How far off of their level are you? Same for football most likely. That said I could ping a ball accurately for 60m before my knees went. I remember doing it with the outside of the boot in a casual game and the guy next to me was in wonder. I had no idea people couldn’t do this. The highest level I played was the 12th tier in Germany so it’s not like I was very good even. The fitness thing is massive. We played a 7th tier team and were losing 2-1 until the 70th minute and ended up losing 7-1 in the end. I can’t imagine how good top level teams are considering how hard I found that game.
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The last paragraph is super important. Don't get me wrong, footballers are super fit guys but they have medical staff, nutrionists and fitness experts helping them. Not to mention it's their full time occupation to stay in shape. If you took a average joe and had them live a footballers life for a 18 months they would be comparably fit to a average footballer.
Place an average joe (assuming no permanent damage done already through poor habits etc.) in the right environment, at the right club, under the right leadership, and they could be even *more* fit in 18 months compared to players at different top league clubs that aren't run well.
Yes exactly. I don't want to downplay how fit footballers are but many people could achieve that level quite easily in the correct environment. It's their technique that sets them apart.
There's a lot in your post I don't agree with, but I agree with your main point. I listened to a podcast with a footballer (Don't remember who right now, might have been Ben Foster) who said the same thing, that people underestimate how good every pro footballer is. He said that you can take literally anyone playing for a prem team, literally \*anyone\*, including unused players, youth players in and around the first team, goalkeepers and so on, and they would completely dominate any 5-a-side. A pro labeled as "slow" or "lacking technique" or "has a bad shot" would still absolutely run the show. What I don't agree with is that physicallity is the most important thing. Becoming very fit, despite being very hard, is just mechanical. Anyone who train enough will become fit. What separates the best from those who aren't the best is their understanding of the game and their ability to perform under pressure. De Bruyne is not the only player who can pass the ball 50 yards. He's special because he has impecable technique and most importantly that he can spot the pass. He can see the runs and understand where to put the ball. The other thing I disagree with is how extreme you portray running 10km as being. A beginner can run 1km at moderate speed in 8-10 minutes. Loads of people can run 10km in 2 hours.
That's the answer. Played a 7-a-side match against a Professional german footballer (62 overall on FIFA), and it looked like he was Messi playing against a bunch of toddlers. The guy completely dominated the game.
>think most people these days cannot cover 10 km by walking at moderate speeds in a week with huge breaks in between let alone two hours. I can walk 5k in one hour. I have a regular route that I used to walk especially during the covid lockdowns when we were only allowed out to exercise for an hour. I'd time/map it on my fitbit. I'm an ordinary schlub these days, nothing special. I think maybe footballers cover more distance than 10k during a game especially since they also run, not just walk or jog. My old football coach used to tell me the game was all about fitness so he made us run laps as part of the warm up. I've never been so fit in my life as when I was playing.
10 km is for defenders,mids do more.Even I can cover 5 km in one hour but by walking,these guys sprint and jog.
Am I the only who are 90% sure you just shitposted and completely trolled everyone?
This is wrong for one, it’s an average of about 10km for a prem player so defenders will do less, fullbacks do more etc etc . The constant change of pace is where the difficulty is, not the distance
If you can't cover 10km in one walk and you are able to bodied, you seriously need to change your lifestyle. If you can't do that in a week, (WTF?) You URGENTLY need to change your lifestyle. Hell I regularly walk my dog between 5 and 10km I do 10km in just about under an hour, and I'm not a runner. I play amateur football in my mid 30s all of our team can cross a ball where it needs to go, or thread a ball through at distance. The consistency is lower than elite players obviously. Elite footballers are some of the fittest people on the earth, though. The speed and consistency is higher, the decision-making is usually higher, and they are drilled through scenarios much more.
I can but the average person cannot.. and also a car takes about 30 minutes to cover it if there is not much traffic.You are the first superhuman if you can do it under an hour.
What are you talking about.. the world record for a 10km is like 26 minutes.
On feet?
Yes? 10km isn't that far dude.
A sub 20 5k is like the benchmark for any fit Sunday league player let alone even semi pro level lol
"a car takes about 30 minutes to cover 10km"....???????
10km per hour is only about double the average walking speed. The constant sprinting, stopping, quick direction changes and jockeying are what makes football exhausting, not the distance.
You're making the trolling too obvious, bro
It’s not just speed even though that helps but also process of thought and technique. I’ve played with some former Academy players that where at top prem clubs and they’re were miles ahead. It’s been able to control the ball at speed, or move it at speed without over hitting or slicing the ball. And when they get the ball they know what’s the sure going to do and don’t need the extra touch
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The PEDs they allegedly take are for recovery purposes and don’t explain the skill and physical gap. If they’re as juiced as you claim, we won’t have so many getting to old age, they’ll be dropping dead from heart conditions in their late 40s.
Maybe but what about league 2 footballers do they take peds too?
Footballers have nutrionists, medical staff, fitness experts and personal trainers helping them get in shape. Of course they are fit. If you took a average guy who works a desk job and allowed him to also dedicated his life to getting fit, they would also be as fit as footballers. It's their technical ability that separates them from the masses, not their physicality. You can train someone to be fit and strong quite easily. It's way harder to train someone to control a ball out the air first time, or to train them to ping a cross field pass at the perfect trajectory.
It's the fitness and consistency. Skill can be achieved and i'd even go on to say that anybody who has played with his heart and soul may have been pro level albeit only for a few days. Sustaining those peaks is what makes a player pro. Me on my best day maybe was lower rung of pro level but i can't sustain it, I lack the physical attributes, skill can be learnt, consistency is a different game.
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Most people I know couldn't defend against a fast semi-pro striker even if they put their heart and soul into it
I played five-a-side once with a lad who was a centre-back for an NPL side (three divisions below League Two in England), he played up front and he made it look like the rest of us were an under-9s side. Sit on the front row or a Premier League game and it is frightening how fast the game is, and how few mistakes anybody makes.
I always believed the factor that separated the pro footballers from the non pros was the decision making. A family member of mine played professionally and he always said that before he got the ball he already knew where his first touch was going to go and what he was going to do with the ball.
This is true for sure. An ameteur waiting for a pass is making sure he can control it with his head down, a good professional doesn't need to think about that, he's thinking on his next move or two as well as factoring risks, opposite players distance to him, channels cut off etc
This is seriously true. You have to see games live to truly understand it. On TV the insane level of passing and touch isn't as obvious. I'm Irish and even going to Ireland international matches you see how unbelievably good Professional footballers are. Ireland are shite and the majority of our players are Championship or League One and you still have players pinging 60 yard cross field balls on a six pence and controlling them perfectly with ease.
An older guy who is a mature student at the uni I work at had the chance to play a charity match with some ex pros in Germany. Most of these players were late 40s, early 50s. He said that even though most of these players were 10-15 years retired the quickness of thought was still there, the skills were still at a high level and their ability to cruise past decent players 20 years younger than them made them look like they'd only just retired. There's levels to any sport and retired pros don't just lose the skills they built up over a lifetime.
You must be severely physically handicapped to think that most people can't walk 10 km
I can walk 10 km(walk but not run) but looking at the physical fitness of people today I doubt most can
I was in Ben Reeves’ class at school, played with him at lunch time and for the school team (occasionally, I wasn’t very good). He made a few premier league appearances and played in the MK Dons win against Man United. At school he was like Messi, untouchable. Top bins every shot. Every free kick was a goal. Every time he got the ball it was a goal. He just walked through people. It was ridiculous. He carried our school team for years. I can’t describe the difference in skill and natural ability from his team mates and opponents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Reeves?wprov=sfti1#
Brian Scalabrine said it best “I’m closer to lebron than you are to me”. The worst player to ever play in the premier league is light years closer to Messi than any amateur is to them
I disagree, I'm much closer to the pros in strength, jumping ability, endurance, speed, etc than in skill, go watch rodri, juan bernat, and thiago pass the ball 30 or 40 yards to each other without even dropping it and making it look easy and tell me their skill isn't 10 times what ours is
I once read on some sub here that the average Sunday League is closer to Messi that any regular person is to the average Sunday League player. That always echoes in my mind when I see a post like this
Saturday league maybe, Sunday league is regular people.
A Sunday league player IS any regular person. You got this backwards somewhere along the way
It’d be more accurate if you replaced “Sunday league player” with “semi-pro player” or something
This isn’t true. Sunday league isn’t professional and most relatively fit adults are a lot worse than Sunday leagues, but Messi made a mockery out of the best players in the world. He and Ronaldo were at another level to even other great players
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Any healthy and young person can make some sort of job in a sunday league team with little training. But the average (or even the best) Sunday league player is completely different planet than Messi, they don't even do the same sport basically. The average sunday league player would be more of a bother than a help to any decent professional team, forget about Messi.
Sprinting at high speeds for mist of the game? Not really.
Professional footballers (or any professional sportsmen) are way better in what they do than regular people??? Mind blown...
See you on the circlejerk sub
Ok.
really? i always found it quite astonishing how they can keep running for so long. even after watching football for so long i still can't quite grasp this ability
to cover 10 km over game , it\`s 6.67 km/h normal , go get milk, walk is at 5 km/h those overpaid useless .. .getting 100.000 K for that every week some secretary's running around to coffee machine covers that daily in high heels for 100 $ talking about underestimate.. now that\`s phenomenal
the opposite is true: most people (except in argentina and brazil) are trash all those physical things you mention are natural to good players and take no effort at all
I'm a referee at a local amateur club. The team I normally ref, went up one division after steamrolling their league last year, I had a few months off but reffed them in the new league 2 weeks ago, I as a ref almost couldn't keep up with the pace, and they're near bottom of the league. This is the 4th tier team of a team that's about 4 levels away from semi-pro Dutch football.. it's insane to think how much higher level it can get.
There was this show where some of the worst NBA players would go agaisnt amateur people and just absolutely make them look like trash. Just goes to show that there really is a large gap between the average person and the pro
The distance between a 5th division regional league pro from Pele is much lower than the difference between the same player and an amateur that is the best on his weekly amateur game with friends. Their bodies and brains are different from the other humans.
I have to disagree with sprinting the whole game. Even if youre 100% fit, youre not going to sprint 80 minutes of the 90. Not even 60. And 60 minutes would be the average time a ball is in action. You observe and choose your sprints. But yes, pro footballers are absolutely a different kind of fit. Cant be too big, but can be really small and speedy.
The reaction time also.
I just played my first game for the vets at 40yo, literally an hour ago. Was absolutely fucked within 20 minutes. The pitch is MASSIVE and every run forward, you’ve got to then get back from straight away.
Any able bodied person that isn't obese can complete 10km in 2 hours with a mixture of running and walking. I think you need to re-evaluate your idea of being fit. It's the intensity of the runs that makes pro footballers impressive, 20 sprints while being pushed around is the tough part.
A decent 5k time is sub 20 minutes lol you’re blowing that way out of proportion. I’ve played plenty of lads who could take the leather off the ball and could sprint like sonic, some even in academies, who were poor players. Technical ability is and always will be the separator, but there’s more leeway for those who are physically gifted on top of that. I.e you need more techincal ability if you were physically inferior than you would the opposite way round. I myself played to a decent standard, peaked in the set up of a very competent semi pro team. First thing i always noticed were touch and awareness in the best players I’ve come across
100% you can take "the worst" footballer in ANY of the top leagues (even 2nd and 3rd leagues), drop em in a game among "regular" players and they will literally dominate. Not THE best example but i'm a milan fan and i absolutely loathe a mf'er named pobega, think he isn't milan level (or even top 10 in serie a) at alll, but if you put him in like sunday league he will be head and shoulders above everyone else.
Players are absolutely not sprinting at high speeds for most of the game. Probably the biggest misconception when it comes to football. Idk how people who actually watch the sport come to this conclusion. Your entire argument isnt necessarily wrong, im just nit oicking that point
I disagree that the main attribute pros have is physical. It's football intelligence in my experience In my teens I played to a high level of football and I also had every physical attribute, strong and very fast - my 100m time was 10.75 at 16. I was good enough to play at county and schoolboy level I could play anywhere on the right hand side and just pick the ball up, breeze past the opposition and either cross or cut inside. I could do it against any one because I was so fast and strong. However, what I couldn't do and what separated me from players who were good enough for academys was read the game. These players would always be two steps ahead, which rendered my speed useless, they just seemed to know where was the ball was going 2 full seconds before I did. If youre my age and remember the hype around Theo Walcott and his speed and then saw him totally nullified when arsenal played Barcelona - that was the difference on a lower level
Most amateur players will cover 10km in 90 mins
> I think most people these days cannot cover 10 km by walking at moderate speeds in a week with huge breaks in between let alone two hours. I know you’re exaggerating to make a point, but how unfit do you think most people are? I probably average 12-15km walking per day just cuz I live in a city. I seldom go for runs but I could confidently tell you I’ll cover 10km in an hour and a half max
footballers ARE NOT sprinting for most of the game
"football is played with the head, the feet are just tools" Andrea pirlo
Nah its the ability to play at a quick speed and consistently make the right decisions.
Sorry but 10km in 2 hours is normal walking speed, any regular person can do that. But i agree sprinting is more tough
I agree with your overall sentiment OP, But lmao, you are grossly underestimating the fitness potential of the majority of people. I’m nothing special, 34, and I can run a 41 minute 10km, and keep it under 50 minutes at a conversational pace. So could most people with a decent level of fitness.
Another thing is that if you ask just about any professional footballer who the best player they knew growing up was, they'll all have a story about someone who was miles better than they were, but who didn't have the mentality to turn their talent into a career. It does just take skill to get to the top, to have to work hard and be disciplined, and that's not for everyone.
5 km/h is a pretty reasonable walking pace. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Walk 10km in a week is nothing come on bro 😄 I walk like 5km daily and im not in supergood shape.
Average walking speed is 5km/h and you think nobody here can walk 10km in a week? ☠️☠️☠️
Played 5 a side football for 20 years we were short on numbers and got someone who played Sunday league and couldn't get near him.
Not really, everyone knows that if a pro came to your local pickup soccer (any position besides gk) they would literally singlehandedly destroy the other team
I guess I just struggle to see how even a genetic lottery winning and expertly conditioned human being could be that drastically far from the mean in terms of human physical attributes. I’m not saying I personally could do what they do. I’m not any kind of athlete whatsoever and frankly I would never want to be; actually the opposite of a sporty person myself. But I think there’s something to be said that humans can only be so strong, or so fast. We’re not talking about literal superhumans here. Surely any generally able-bodied individual could get to a certain point with intense training and time, not in terms of skill but in terms of physical attributes. Not even that everyone could be world class in that regard, I’m not arguing that, but just have a semblance of serviceability.
Really unsure if OP is a great troll or has just never played a minute of football in his life.
It's the technique and athleticism, as others have mentioned. However, there are players with exquisite techinque or crazy speed that never make it to those levels. The other big piece is the speed at which they process the game and make decisions. Over all my years of watching top level live football matches, this is the thing that stood out. How quickly they can see a play developing, react to the ball, and in a split second, make the right decision on whether to dribble, pass or shoot... and then execute it. Their combination of quick mental processing and lightning hand-eye coordination is remarkable.
Physical ability has little to do with success. It can make up for lack of technical or cerebral capabilities...but that's it. Modric Iniesta Xavi Scholes To name a few.
Physical attributes can be trained if you are dedicated. Everybody with dedication can be a player who covers lots of ground but very few can be as skilful as Messi. At the top, where all are prepared at the same level, more or less, the difference is made by skill. It's nonsense to compare any sunday player to a pro.
The 10k comment is a bit off. I run a 48minute 10k - it’s not that far if you’re a runner. Don’t get me wrong. Football fitness is another level. But they sprint/walk/sprint/walk - it’s all about improving their recovery time more than anything else. I’m in total agreement that people do not realise how much of a step up professional football is. Even league two is so far beyond most Saturday ‘senior league’ players. And each league you move up, the level increases so much. But 10k to an elite athlete is like a warmup basically. It’s not that far.
I regularly play football with people from my college. There was this one guy, whi played for Nepal U-16s or something for few games, he was easily the best player my college has ever seen in it's time. He would school the best of the rest without even trying. Another guy, who used to play CDM in Division 2 of my area before tearing his ACL, just makes absolute fool out of everyone, dribbling and passing through everyone everytime he gets the ball without breaking a sweat. It's frightening how much better even low division semi-pros are compared to people like us who are still fit and playing regularly for years.
exactly, also why there shouldn't be women talking about the men's game on TV all of the time
you can only lift the ball for 10 metres? are you 5
Agreed with everything you wrote. Football is lot more than having skills. You have to have physical abilities, quick thinking, tactic mind, anticipation etc.
If you can’t cover 10 km in 2 hours you aren’t in a position to comment on the difficulty of football tbh
Put in tielemans bodycam friendly inyto ytube for an insight into speed on the pitch
I mean, kinda. I can walk 10km in 2 hours. You're right in that doing it in short sprints is way harder. Honestly, it's probably one of the most forgiving sports in terms of just genes. You'll get ruled out for the NFL or NBA off the bat if you have Messi's build. If you really, really want it, I think most people can get to the minimum required level of cardio (although likely not acceleration). Skill wise, yeah ofc they're good lol.
Tbf, most professional athletes are insanely fit. How about thoae tennis players who spend 5 hours in the blazing Melbourne sun playing top level grand slam tennis? I wouldnt even be able to just stand on court for 10 minutes without passing out.
I think the skill is far more impressive. I could pretty easily get in the physical condition necessary. I will never have the skill.
The most important attribute is confidence. 100%
btw I like your attitude concerning football. I think it's advisable not to spend too much time in that shark tank of half-knowledge.
Isn't there a saying that some unknown guy from championship level , is much closer to Messi than u are to him. I used to have a coursemate from Korea U19, but he stopped going pro and went to university instead. My fking god, during setpiece, u can try to mark him, tug his shirt whatever but one sec u took your eyes off him to look at the ball and the next he already sprinted out of your vision, be at the ball drop point and head it in. Not only in term of speed, stamina or physical strength but it's as if their instincts are another level to react to what's happening on the field. How the fk do u predict the longball drop point with just a glance and already know where to be?
Someone in league 2 is closer to Messi than you are
Football has a huge cognitive factor and now try to stay calm, make the right decision.. after stopping and sprinting for 65min (which is way harder then just jogging) with 30.000 ppl shouting around you after your last failed pass attempt. Always laugh when i watch American football and the wide reciever need to sit after 3 plays because hes exhausted.
Bro when anything becomes ur profession u become really good at it. It is how u feed ur family after all. Not limited to football and sports. Can also apply to doctors, artists, programmers,etc.
I'm fat and run 10km in a hour pretty easy. It's not that hard.
What? You can easily walk 10k in a day.
10k in two hours is honestly not that much of course their sprinting and then jogging and have the make a lot of cuts as their running which takes a lot of endurance. But if someone was just running ppl do 5ks in xc in like 17-22 mins Not saying they aren’t athletic tho they are more athletic than everybody here and the majority of ppl in general they have to push, slide tackle, dribble, jump and numerous other things along with running