At City?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s clear that the game is quicker than it has ever been, which, when coupled with strength and size, has changed the game dramatically in the last few years.
The technical ability of players today is higher than it has ever been, and not just amongst those 5’7” genius players teams used to hunt the globe for.
Today, technical ability comes in a 5’10” to 6’2” package, has the physique of a swimsuit model, lungs of a marathon runner, and could place in an Olympic sprint trial.
I grew up in and around the professional game. It wasn’t like this. The combination of size, speed and strength with apex technical ability may have been present in the odd world class player (Zidane immediately springs to mind, as does Ronaldo), but entire teams are now being built full of them.
That IS new.